The U.S. House has just passed the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act aka the Matthew Shepard Act by a vote of 249-175:
"The LLEHCPA will authorize the Department of Justice toinvestigate and prosecute certain bias-motivated crimes based on thevictim's actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender, genderidentity, or disability. Currently, the federal government can onlyinvestigate hate crimes motivated by the victim's race, color,religion, and national origin. It will also provide local authorities with more resources to combathate crimes and give the federal government jurisdiction overprosecuting hate crimes in states where the current law is inadequate."
The bill now moves to the Senate.
Watch the far right anti-gay Republicans (Michele Bachmann, Steve King, Louie Gohmert) go nuts in the debate earlier today, AFTER THE JUMP…
