socialmedian: Preaching the Gospel Would be Against the Law! (And Other Hate Crimes Myths)

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Preaching the Gospel Would be Against the Law! (And Other Hate Crimes Myths)

Submitted by Nathan from Google Reader

Oct 17, 2009

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Filed under: Senate, House, Democrats, Republicans, Religion, Crime, Gay Rights, Race, Polls, Obama Administration, Disputations, Congress, Conservatives

With a Senate vote expected soon to expand federal hate crimes laws to include sexual orientation, religious conservatives are ramping up the rhetoric against the bill, which passed the House last week. Their anxiety is understandable. Democrats are behind the legislation, and at this month's gala for the Human Rights Campaign, the leading gay rights lobby, President Obama renewed his pledge to sign the bill.

In an effort to guarantee passage, Democratic leaders have attached the bill to a defense appropriations measure, which angers many Republicans who have been able to thwart the legislation in every Congress since 2001, when the bill was first introduced. (The bill is named after Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old man beaten to death in Wyoming in October 1998 because he was gay, and James Byrd, a black man dragged to his death behind a pickup truck by a gang of white men in Texas a few months before Shepard ...Read the full article

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