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Hate Crimes Out Of U.S. Senate Bill

News via HRC:

House-Senate conferees confirmed that the Matthew Shepard Act, which had passed the Senate as an amendment to the Department of Defense Authorization bill, would be removed from the final version of the bill. This announcement was made after House Leadership’s whipping the vote count on the conference report concluded there were not enough votes for passage of the bill if it included the hate crimes provision.

The House of Representatives passed the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (H.R. 1592) in May with a strong bipartisan vote of 237-180. The Senate approved the nearly identical Matthew Shepard Act (S. 1105) as an amendment to the Department of Defense Authorization bill on a voice vote after a 60-39 cloture vote.

Inclusion of the hate crimes provision in the final version of the bill fell victim in the House to challenges from opponents of hate crimes as well as unrelated concerns regarding Iraq-related provisions of the bill. The hate crimes veto threat issued by the White House and organized opposition by House Republican Leadership cost significant numbers of votes on the right. Iraq-related provisions that many progressive Democrats opposed cost votes on the left. Moderate Democrats, many of whom voted for the hate crimes bill in May, did not want to test the President’s veto threat and risk a delay in increased pay for military personnel. All of these factors resulted in insufficient votes to secure passage of the bill with the hate crimes provision.

The Matthew Shepard Act gives the Justice Department the power to investigate and prosecute bias motivated violence by providing the Department with jurisdiction over crimes of violence where the perpetrator has selected the victim because of the person's actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

The legislation also provides the Justice Department with the ability to aid state and local jurisdictions either by lending assistance or, where local authorities are unwilling or unable, by taking the lead in investigations and prosecutions of violent crime resulting in death or serious bodily injury that were motivated by bias. The Act also makes grants available to state and local communities to combat violent crimes committed by juveniles, train law enforcement officers, or to assist in state and local investigations and prosecutions of bias motivated crimes.

Transgender Woman Loses Vote After Failed Lawsuit

A transgender city council member in Riverdale, GA lost a re-election bid in a runoff after a lawsuit that claimed she tried to fool voters by running as a woman.

Michelle Bruce said that even though a judge dismissed the lawsuit the day before the vote, the suit served its intended purpose.

Bruce got 223 votes, compared to 308 votes for Wayne Hall, election returns showed.

Bruce, 46, landed one of Riverdale's four council seats in 2003 after running unopposed. She was believed to be the state's first transgender politician. She has declined to say if she had surgery to change her gender.

Bruce captured 312 votes in the Nov. 6 election, not enough to avoid a runoff against Wayne Hall, who earned 202 votes. Third-place finisher Georgia Fuller, who collected 171 votes, filed a lawsuit.

The complaint, identifying Bruce as "Michael Bruce," claimed she misled voters by identifying herself as a female and asked a judge to rule the vote results invalid and order another general election.

Fuller's attorney, Mike King, said at the time the lawsuit was filed that the female name gave Bruce an "unfair advantage" because the town's voters tend to vote for females — particularly incumbents. King could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.