In a speech on Saturday in San Francisco, Elizabeth Edwards made note of the 4th of July holiday homophobic murder of Satendar Singh in Sacramento, slamming George W. Bush on his inaction on federal hate crimes legislation.
Said Edwards: “This president talks a lot about good and evil and the need to seek out evil doers. But he doesn't seem to recognize the evil in hate crimes. The right to live without the fear of being murdered for whom we love is not a special right. We were in fact reminded again while we share the lingering memory of a fence post in Laramie, the sorrow of that image is now joined by a park at Lake Natoma in Sacramento. And Matthew Shepard is joined by Satendar Singh as a martyr in that fight for justice.”
Singh was attacked while picknicking with friends after a group of Russian men began taunting him with racist and homophobic slurs. The men then punched Singh, knocking him to the ground where his head began bleeding. Singh died of head trauma injuries four days later. He was a Fijian immigrant and had been living in the U.S. for seven years after being awarded a green card.
Edwards also told those attending her speech, which was sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, that if elected, her husband John Edwards “would help repeal more than a thousand laws that discriminate against same-sex couples.”
This is Elizabeth Edwards' second major speech to gay groups in recent month. In the first, she announced that she supports full marriage rights for same-sex couples, an opinion which differs from that of her candidate husband, who supports civil unions.
Elizabeth Edwards decries beating death of Sacramento man [ap via san jose mercury news]
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