Senate Majority Leader and Republican presidential hopeful Bill Frist (TN) succeeded in forcing Sen. Edward Kennedy to release his hold on a child protection bill, thereby killing any hopes of passing a federal hate crimes law this year which covers gays and transgender persons according to the Washington Blade. The legislation passed the House last year with the hate crimes provision.
"John Marble, spokesperson for National Stonewall Democrats, said earlier this year that the Republican-controlled Congress was responsible for blocking the hate crimes bill and all other gay supportive legislation." “This won’t change until Democrats win back control of Congress,” he said. "A spokesperson for Log Cabin Republicans, a national gay GOP group, did not return a call seeking comment."
Next month, Sen. Frist will seek to score additional points with the anti-gay bigoted Christian right by bringing up for debate the Marriage Protection Amendment, a proposed amendment to the constitution to impede states from enacting gay marriage laws.
Good. All hate crime laws should be striken down, no matter what groups they do or do not include. Wanting your little pet group to be included since the hate crime law exists, instead of demanding that the law be rescinded, is unprincipled.
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