WASHINGTON - The House of Representatives gave its nod to extend the federal hate crime law to ban those violent acts committed on people based on their gender or sexual orientation. The House passed the bill by 237 to 180 to include crimes that initiate violence because of a “gender, sexual orientation or gender identity.”
However the most immediate impact of the bill may be another veto by the White House, which has already threatened to send this bill on the same path as it sent the Iraq war spending bill. The White House is under pressure from conservatives to deal with this law and has said it was "unnecessary and constitutionally questionable."
The veto threat may be a very real one, because the vote is not enough to override a presidential veto. However many human rights groups welcomed the vote and said they did not want this to be vetoed.
"We are not going to stop working on this president," said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign. "There's time before this goes to the president's desk. I hope that we have an opportunity to engage the White House … to talk to him about the kind of legacy he wants to look back upon."
Rep. Mark Steven Kirk (R-Ill.), who switched part lines in voting for the bill said he hoped Bush would follow his father's example and sign the bill into a law. George Bush senior had authorized the Justice Department to compile statistics related to hate crimes in 1990.
House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) explained the need of the bill by saying that hate crimes "motivated by race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation and identity or disability not only injure individual victims, but also terrorize entire segments of our population and tear at our nation's social fabric."
Clergymen believe the bill violates their freedom to preach against gay behavior. ""We believe that this legislation will criminalize our freedom of speech and our ability to preach the gospel," said Bishop Harry Jackson of Hope Christian Church.
