Monday, February 26, 2007

Hate Crimes Legislation

In Detroit last week, 72-year-old Andrew Anthos was riding on a city bus and was asked by a fellow passenger if he was gay. The passenger then followed Mr. Anthos off the bus and attacked him with a metal pipe. Mr. Anthos died from his injuries Friday night and according to media reports, police are continuing the investigation without any solid leads.

Take action today to make sure that Congress passes comprehensive hate crimes legislation this session. Fill out the form below to tell your Representative to become an original cosponsor of the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act that will soon be introduced in the House.

This legislation is a common sense, anti-bias crime measure which brings our nation's laws into the 21st century and is strongly supported by religious organizations, civil rights organizations and law enforcement officials. It is also widely supported by the American public.

You can go to the Human Rights Campaign Website to take action.

On a related note, I recently read this report at work and was so overcome with sadness I had to take a moment to compose myself. "50 Under 30: Masculinity and the War on America's Youth". Click on the big image on the bottom left of the screen to download the report. It details all the hate crime killings that have happened simply because of one's gender expression, and not even necessarily because of their sexual orientation.

From the report: Few of us realize just how many young people are dying violently each year simply because they don't fit someone's ideal for masculinity and femininity. Yet if federal law mandated the FBI to track genderbased hate crimes, they would outweigh every other category except race.

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