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Washington, D.C., September 14th – The House today passed hate crimes legislation which would extend the existing federal hate crimes statute to cover gender, disability and real or perceived sexual orientation. The legislation was attached to the Children’s Safety Act (H.R. 3132) as an amendment. Moran voted in favor of the amendment, which passed 223 to 199, and for final passage of H.R. 3132, which passed on a 371 to 52 vote.
“Based on FBI statistics, we know that biased crimes due to a person’s real or perceived sexual orientation consistently rank in the top three of all reported hate crimes,” said Moran. “Clearly, not having this category of crimes qualify under the Hate Crimes laws was an omission based on ignorance rather than reason. I am glad that enough Republicans understood this issue and chose to join with Democrats in protecting these American citizens from hate crimes.”
The amendment extending hate crimes protection for sexual orientation and gender was authored by Representative John Conyers (D-MI) and based on his stand alone legislation, “The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act” (H.R. 2662), of which Moran is also a cosponsor. The Senate has yet to consider the Children’s Safety Act.
On a related note, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) recently released their ratings for the 108th Congress. Representative Moran (VA-08) received a perfect score from the organization, voting the position favored by HRC on eight measures considered vital to the goals of the organization. The HRC scorecard can accessed at http://www.hrc.org/.
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