The Senate approved the hate crimes bill.
The following is a press release:
National Center for Transgender Equality
www.nctequality.org

For immediate release                                                   Contact: Mara Keisling

June 15, 2004                                                              (202) 639-6331 mkeisling@nctequality.org

NCTE Notes Passage of Federal Hate Crime Legislation
Bill Lacks Desperately-Needed Explicit Transgender Inclusion

Washington, DC – The United States Senate today passed legislation that would allow for enhanced ability to investigate and prosecute hate crimes motivated by actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender and disability.  Sixty-five Senators voted in favor of the legislation which was offered by Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) as an amendment to the Defense Department Authorization Act.

“We are of course pleased any time Congress speaks out against hate violence committed against anyone,” said Mara Keisling, NCTE Executive Director.  “Yet we are deeply disappointed that the Senate sponsors would not explicitly name gender identity and expression as an included category.  This is especially painful to transgender people this week as we await a verdict in the trial of those accused of murdering Gwen Araujo, a young transgender woman in California.

According to Senators on both sides of the aisle and both sides of this issue, the intent of this legislation is to include transgender people within the category “actual or perceived gender.” Thus, if it is signed into law, authorities would be able to use this language to investigate and prosecute certain incidents of hate violence against transgender people.  However, judges and juries may not agree with this interpretation.  Moreover, a primary purpose of hate crime laws is to send an unmistakable public message that attacking or killing people because you don’t like who they are is not tolerable in our society.  This legislation, as written, simply does not send that message.

“More than one transgender person per month is murdered because of their gender identity or expression,” according to Paisley Currah, board member of the Transgender Law and Policy Institute. “The Senate missed an opportunity to send a very clear message that these crimes are unacceptable.  With nine dead so far this year, we need a strong message from our leaders now.”

The Senate has passed this bill twice, both times as amendments to other legislation.  Each time, a conference committee stripped the hate crimes language from the bill.

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The National Center for Equality (NCTE) is a social justice organization dedicated to advancing the equality of transgender people through advocacy, collaboration and empowerment.

Republicans are using the energy "crisis" as an excuse to push the energy expansion bill once more. They claim that opening up national parks and previously withheld land for oil drilling and mining will help America subsidize energy prices. Why does this bill keep coming up, time after time? Why? Because it is being backed by people who really want it to succeed: lobbyists for major oil companies. We all know they have America's best interest in mind. Don't they?

Happy Birthday, Joyce!!

Btw, it was her birthday on the 6th, but I forgot to bLog. Oops.

So, Joyce asked: What do you write about in your BLog?

Me: I write about a lot of things. I've been writing about gay and lesbian rights lately.

Joyce: You don't write about me?

hehehehe.

I wrote about you, girl.

Who is John Kerry? And should you support him?

John Kerry has been winning a lot of things by default. He is simply, as some say, better than Bush. And, it seems, anything better than Bush is worth voting for.

Kerry is okay. Yes, just okay. There is nothing remarkable about him. He is the most vanilla candidate we've seen since Al Gore. Even more so in some ways. But this is the man that is going to be our next president.

Why do I waffle over the waffler himself? Kerry has consistently failed to support gay rights. Instead, he says that he actually supports a ban of marriage for gay and lesbian couples in the Massachusetts constitution. His reparation: civil unions are okay. All you have to do is read down two posts to see my opinion on civil unions.

But the question is, will I vote for him? It's times like these that I wish we lived in an ideal world. I would vote for Nader if we did. He wholeheartedly supports environment efforts, the consumer, the working class, the blue collar and the white, and gay marriage. Some call Nader an election spoiler who doesn't know when to quit. I call him brave and idealistic in a realistic way. How many politicians really stick by what they say they believe. How many actually BELIEVE what they say they do? Nader knows he's the underdog. He knows he won't win, but he persists because this is his passion, because he feels that this is the right thing to do.

And I feel horrible for having decided to vote for Kerry. Another four years of Bush will most definitely plunge us into more debt, divide neighbors, decimate Iraq and the rest of the Middle East in a search for so-called terrorists, and ravage the environment.