Hate Crimes Bill.

[pirate-poet.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if this has been posted about before here, but I just came across it and found it note-worthy.

(If anyone knows more about this, has more information on it... please let me know. This article was the first mention I've heard of it.)

Kennedy nixes transgender language from Senate hate crimes bill: Queer Day

(see also the article below, behind the LJ-cut)

NATIONAL NEWS

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House, Senate differ on hate crimes bill
Kennedy measure omits explicit transgender language

By LOU CHIBBARO JR.
Friday, June 03, 2005

Ninety-six members of the House of Representatives have co-sponsored a bill authorizing the federal government to prosecute hate crimes based on a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity, a first-of-its-kind reference to transgendered persons in federal legislation.

But enthusiasm for the bill by transgender rights activists was dampened when Senators Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) introduced a Senate version of the bill on May 26 — the same day the House version was introduced — that includes a sexual orientation clause but omits the gender identity language.

“We argued this time for Senators Kennedy and Smith to add the more explicit language on transgendered people,” said Christopher Labonte, legislative director for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay political group.

“They believe their version covers the entire GLBT community,” Labonte said.

Labonte was referring to the view by Kennedy and Smith that hate crimes committed against transgendered persons are covered in the Kennedy-Smith bill under language authorizing federal intervention for hate crimes based on someone’s “actual or perceived” sexual orientation or gender.

HRC shared that view less than a year ago, when the national gay political group opposed adding transgender related language to both the hate crimes bill and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. HRC has since changed its position, saying it will no longer support ENDA if its congressional sponsors don’t add trans-inclusive language.

Transgender activists, led by the National Center for Transgender Equality, have said the explicit language of “gender identity” or “gender identity and expression” is needed in the hate crimes bill to insure judges and prosecutors understand that transgendered people are covered under the legislation.

Mara Keisling, the National Center for Transgender Equality’s executive director, said the more inclusive language would have an impact beyond the prosecution of hate crimes.

“We pass these laws not just because it’s an extra tool to prosecute crimes,” she said. “We do it because it educates law enforcement officials and potential assailants who may commit these crimes.”

Both the House and Senate versions of the legislation call for amending an existing federal anti-hate crimes statute that authorizes federal prosecution for hate crimes based on someone’s race, religion and ethnicity. The Kennedy-Smith bill adds sexual orientation, gender, and disability to the categories covered under the existing law. The House version adds the categories of sexual orientation, gender, disability and gender identity.

The lead co-sponsors of the House version are Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who is gay, Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), who is a lesbian, and Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich), Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), and Illeana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.).
Gay Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) also signed on as a co-sponsor.

Senate passed hate bill twice
As of late last week, when Congress recessed for the Memorial Day holiday, a total of 96 House members had signed on as co-sponsors for the House bill, H.R. 2662, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2005. Of the 96 co-sponsors, 91 are Democrats and 5 are Republicans.

Forty-three senators, including Kennedy and Smith, signed on as Senate co-sponsors of the Senate bill, the Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act of 2005, as of the time of the recess. Of that total, 38 are Democrats and five are Republicans.

Various versions of the Kennedy-Smith bill have been introduced in the Senate and House since the mid-1990s. The Senate on two occasions passed versions with sexual orientation language, the most recent last year. The House killed that version in a House-Senate conference committee, despite the fact that the full House voted 213-186 to instruct its conferees to support the addition.

Kennedy has not spoken publicly about his position on a gender identity clause in the hate crimes bills. Capitol Hill insiders have said Kennedy believes adding such a clause would hurt the bill’s chances of passing and would prompt several senators to withdraw their support for the legislation.

In the past, as many as 49 senators have signed on as co-sponsors of the Kennedy-Smith hate crimes bill, six more than the 43 co-sponsors so far this year. A few co-sponsors from last year, including former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), lost their re-election bids to conservative Republicans hostile to gay rights.

Frank, while becoming one of the lead co-sponsors of the hate crimes bill in the House, which includes transgender language, has said he opposes adding transgender language to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA.

ENDA calls for banning employment discrimination in the private sector based on sexual orientation. ENDA and previous versions of gay civil rights bills have languished in Congress since the 1970s. Frank has said adding a transgender clause to ENDA would result in fewer co-sponsors.

A transgender clause is more suited for a hate crimes bill, Frank has said, because hate crimes are threats against physical safety of citizens, including transgender people, and a legislative remedy would gain far more support in Congress.

Frank says ENDA remains doomed in the Republican-controlled Congress whether it includes a transgender clause. But he argues that adding such a clause could hurt the legislation’s chances of passing for years to come.

Transgender rights advocates, like Keisling, argue that ENDA backers should embrace a transgender clause as an educational tool to build gradual support for transgender rights at a time when everyone knows ENDA can’t pass.

ENDA backers in the House and Senate have yet to reintroduce the legislation this year. HRC has said it expects to line up supporters for a trans-inclusive version of ENDA later in the year. However, Kennedy — one of ENDA’s lead co-sponsors, is expected to introduce the bill without a transgender clause.