Oct 28, 2009
Today President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (HCPA). The HCPA expands federal hate crime protection beyond race, religion and national origen to now include the victim's actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability. This will allow the U.S. Justice Department to investigate and prosecute certain bias-motivated crimes based on the victim's actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability.
While 45 states have some hate crime legislation: only 30 states and the District of Columbia (the District) include sexual orientation in their law, only 26 and the District include gender, only 12 and the District include gender identity, and only 30 and the District include disability.
The HCPA also provides federal support through training and direct assistance to local law enforcement officials to help ensure bias-motivated crimes are investigated and prosecuted. In some cases the HCPA allows federal intervention if local law enforcement officials fail to act. National Public Radio has done a very nice story on this legislation which can be viewed by clicking here.
