This one is a no brainer. It should be passed for all those children who are bullied in school showing them that adults do not condone this behavior.

Bravo Rep Conyers. You've really become a hero to me for standing up for what is right; not only in terms of this legislation, but your constant quest for accountability in government. Wish we had a House full like you.

The Republican neo-cons have tried for too long to make hatered if others an American value.
It's time things got turned around.
We are a nation of diversity. As long as the American Voters fall for the divisive tactics of the Republicans, we will have governments like the administration we are currently enduring.
Us-ing and them-ing will only allow the oligarchic enemies of true democracy get the upper hand.
This is a step away from divisiveness and toward reclaiming our country.

Good! Good, good, good...it's about time. Even if it passes, it'll probably get vetoed, but I'd rather see the Democrats do the right thing than avoid trying at all because they know the inevitable outcome.

FYI, the American Family Association is trying to stir up the fundie extremists by sending video clips of a Dallas Pride Parade to their members. They're trying to tell their followers that a hate crimes bill would protect pride parades. BULL! It'll protect gay people from being attacked by these fundies at our own pride parades. They're just trying to scare people into thinking that they'll be punished for simply not liking gay people. A BIG FAT LIE!

If you haven't contacted your Congresscritters yet, please do so. The Human Rights Campaign website has links for doing so.

Hope this passes.

Unfortunately, as long as most Americans are under-educated and ignorant, and live in isolated pockets in rural areas, hate will continue to be an exploit made available to the neocons.

Very true, John. Hate will never leave us though. That's not what this is about. We're not trying to stop people from hating (though that would be a wonderful thing!), but discourage the behavior of physically expressing their hate. If you know you're going to get a tougher sentence because your basis for beating a person to death was their race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation, then you might think twice about behaving that way.

Let's be honest, there are still PLENTY of people out there that hate black people and they REALLY hate the idea of black and white people dating and marrying each other. I know some of those people. Beating a black person to death should be treated more harshly than beating someone up in a bar fight. The motive of disliking someone's inate characteristic isn't acceptable and is much more heinous than getting mad at someone and punching them out.

Bottom line, people can keep hating me if they want to, but they don't have a right to beat me up just because they hate me.

I pray it passes but I'm not holding my breath.

Me, either, Callie, I'm sad to say. The wretched right cling to their hatreds, nursing them and coddling them the way normal people would cling to the love of their life. It's a sad existence they lead, living only to take away from others, never to add anything positive to the world. It's sadder still that they insist on making their wretchedness part of the national culture.

So far have we fallen from the ideals of the Founders and Framers. I'm pretty sure the Framers are spinning in the collective graves and the Holy Spirit has flapped off in dismay.

Just to reaffirm your thought, Rev.

Illinois is working to pass a civil unions type bill that would give partner's

the ability to participate in healthcare visitation and decision making for one's partner, survivor benefits and the right to make disposition decisions about deceased partner's remains.

How could any decent human being that dares call him/herself a Christian have a problem with this? How can this NOT be called hate?

From the Law Enforcement's point of view, it is at times saddening to witness to-be-hate crimes spit out in Court as a simple misdemeanor. When every one knows deep inside that the fruit and motive of a defendant's actions were solely based on hate. These simple misdemeanors are often paid in form of unenforced forms of probation. Needless to say, as previously noted, this bill will not stop a defendant from acting out his criminal intentions based on the rhetoric that his concequences are bumped up a degree higher in the criminal justice chart. Ignorance, whether in one of our Nation's most metropolitan areas or urban side of the house, is not a valid excuse for violation of the law. Godspeed...

Marco Lopez

PSH,

Y'know? Christ was all about giving and understanding, forbearance and self-inspection. The reich wing lives to take away, to cast doubt and discord and to deflect inspection away from their own actions by crying out loudly about others' putative "sins".

No, I don't give a red'un how many bigbox megachurches they hide in, how many hallabalooyers they holler, how high their hair is, the plain and evident fact is that they never once took joy in the Gospels. They revel in the damning power of Leviticus. They have no right to call themselves Christian, for surely they have no idea what He taught or how He lived.

Just sayin'.

I'm reminded of a dicho by a blogger I sorely miss. When she was treated ill by some of the bigwig kreeshchyin women in her church, her mom soothed her with some wise words: "Honey, those ladies are too busy being good to be nice." Hmm... a tiptoe through the Red Letters will make it plain for anyone who would pay attention: JC was busy being nice; goodness simply followed.

Rev

It sure is nice to see some common sense in the Senate and House. I thought I was going to buy a new Republican dictionary with the only words in it are Hate, bigotry, stupidity, murder, theft, Lie and Closed mind. There are some other words in there. But I cannot say them over the Internet.

Hate will never leave us, but it also should never public policy.
There are too many bullies out there who look at other human beings, who for various reasons are marked by society as outcasts, and use that as an excuse to torture, either mentally or physically those people as a mask to hide their own deficiencies.
Many of them are using society's dislike of a group as an excuse to abuse people and possibly gain approval and acceptance for themselves by doing it.
Hate crime laws remove a lot of the reward these cowards would gain by their acts. Whether their peers approve or not society should register disapproval in the strongest manner.

This is all wonderful news, but my fear is not the House, but the Senate. The most vulnerable group in this bill are transgender people. The Senate version of the hate crimes bill last year was NOT transgender inclusive. I wrote about it here.

This is good news.

Also, a same sex partners benefits bill is advancing in the MN senate. But but Gov. Pawlenty (R) is opposed. I think he's too smart to veto it myself. Republicans in MN elect gays. The GOP national party has been trying to impose the same old divisive model on MN and it doesn't work.

The proposed legislation LLEHCPA will either fail in the Senate or get vetoed. The initial underlying factor being the Bush Administration,
the lack of total Democratic support and the Republican Party attitude on the subject of violence. We are in a war based on deceit and lies from these same representatives. Violence and bullying are the only things that these people know and those attitudes have been expressed as their attitudes, not the will of the people they supposedly represent. Given enough rope, lack of support and vetoes by those empowered, the American people will have all the information they need to make a better choice for who they vote for in coming elections. It has also shown us the imperfections in our democratic system that need corrected before the elections. I have heard "by Executive order of the President" way too many times and a "Supreme Court under the control of the President, not representing the law of the land or the peoples of this land."
The only upside I see in this period of time is the exposure of corruption in this Bush Admistration building stronger commitments of each and every US Citizen taking a more active part in selection and oversight of all government offices. Based on the number of previous recent Republican President's resigning, I have
every reason to believe their goals for achieving the Presidency are pervertedly skewed by their unwritten policies so tightly interwoven in their Republican Party Politics that less US Citizens are served than would normally be served by a two party system. Where are the mice we need to run the elephants out of politics?

Hate crime is a universal porblem and needs to be treated like a univesal problem.

There is no place in American Society for violence against human beings because of race, religion, age, gender or ethnicity. It is alarming that this Country of ours does not include sexual orientation as part of our right of protection.

Better late than never. Move quickly. More time passes everyday you delay this legislation.

And be sure to be as swift to override the presidential veto that will surely come from our ignorant President of our United States of America. Said President who is controlled by the religious right bigots of our great Country.

Joe McCormack