Hate-crime protection for gays passes in House

WASHINGTON — Brushing aside a veto threat from President Bush, the House on Thursday approved legislation that would extend federal hate-crime protection to gays and increase penalties against their attackers.

The legislation was first given life in 1998, after Matthew Shepard, a gay man, was beaten, tied to a fence and left to die in Wyoming. Shepard's mother, Judy, appeared Thursday at an emotional, closed-door meeting of House Democrats.

Although the proposal has passed the House or Senate several times since 2000, it never has cleared the entire Congress.

But with Democrats in charge, advocates see the best chance of toughening a federal hate-crime law that has existed since 1968 and focuses on race, color, religion and national origin. The bill passed 237-180, with 25 Republicans joining 212 Democrats. Fourteen Democrats opposed it.

All Washington state Democrats voted for the bill, as did Republican Dave Reichert. Republican Doc Hastings voted against it; Republican Cathy McMorris Rodgers did not vote.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who co-authored the bill's first version with Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., in 2000, pledged quick Senate action.

But Bush may stand in the way. On Wednesday, the House's staunchest conservatives wrote him, saying the legislation federalizes crime enforcement and "segregates people into different groups. ... "

James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, warned that the true intent of the bill was "to muzzle people of faith who dare to express their moral and biblical concerns about homosexuality." If you read the Bible in a certain way, he told his broadcast listeners, "you may be guilty of committing a 'thought crime.' "

"It does not impinge on public speech or writing in any way," countered Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., noting that the bill reaffirms First Amendment and free-speech rights.

The White House issued a statement Thursday saying: "There has been no persuasive demonstration of any need to federalize such a potentially large range of violent-crime enforcement, and doing so is inconsistent with the proper allocation of criminal enforcement responsibilities between the different levels of government."

The vote was short of the two-thirds needed to override a veto.

Under the bill, the definition of a hate crime would expand to include gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability. Local law-enforcement officials could apply for federal grants to solve such crimes, and federal agents would have more authority to help police. Federal sentencing guidelines would be stiffened.

"Some people ask, 'Why is this legislation even necessary?' " House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said during the debate. "To them, I answer, because brutal hate crimes motivated by race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation and identity or disability not only injure individual victims, but also ... tear at our nation's social fabric."

Material from The Associated Press and Los Angeles Times is included in this report.