House Vote: Gay-Bashing a Hate Crime

In a 281-146 vote, the House voted to expand federal hate-crime laws to include crimes based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability. The measure, attached to a defense policy bill, is expected to pass the Senate and would allow federal prosecutors to intercede in assault cases motivated by anti-gay sentiment as well as provide federal grants to assist in those crimes’ prosecution. The original hate-crimes law, passed after Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968, covered crimes committed based on race, color, religion, or national origin, and civil-rights groups and their congressional allies have been trying to expand it for more than a decade. By attaching the measure to a necessary defense bill, Democrats—with the strong support of the president—appear to have succeeded, much to Republicans’ annoyance: “This is radical social policy that is being put… on the backs of our soldiers,” said House Republican leader John Boehner. The FBI says some 16 percent of the 8,000 hate crimes committed in the U.S. each year are motivated by sexual orientation.