26.6.07

The Matthew Shepard Act

Thousands of people are attacked every year just because of who they are. There's still no federal hate crimes law to protect them. They ought to be protected. Bullies don't care about the niceties -- if they don't like you, for your race or your sexual orientation or your religious beliefs or the way you wear your hair, they'll beat you senseless with whatever's handy.

A hate crimes act protects us all.

There's a bill in the Senate right now -- the Matthew Shepard Act -- that would address this problem, and we only have a few weeks until the vote. Many decent, fair-minded folks have now sent more than 200,000 letters to Congress in support of the Matthew Shepard Act. But according to staffers at the U.S. Senate, opponents of the Matthew Shepard Act are still beating us five to one in emails, calls, and letters.



From the letter: While a random act of violence against any individual is always a tragic event, we know that violent crimes based on prejudice are meant to terrorize an entire community.

Follow this link to contact your senator. It only takes a minute.