Historic Victory: The Matthew Shepard Act Passes US Senate!

Today is a great day! Not just because of tonight's Senate Candidate Discussion Forum that will be held over at MCC NOVA. No, because, finally, after years and years and years of effort, and after repeated attempts by alarmist religious leaders making false claims about the proposed Hate Crimes law, the Matthew Shepard Act has passed the US Senate as an amendment to the defense authorization bill. This is cause to celebrate!

It has not always been easy. Misprepresentations about this bill and law have been made by anti-equality forces for years. Many of them are fresh tactics employed to swing fair-minded Senators away from supporting this law. For example, our friends over at Equality Loudoun have carefully documented a series of ads and statements that appeared in Loudoun this summer by right wing organizations claiming that the hate crimes law would prevent free religious expression. Thank God, they've all failed to stop the right thing from happening!

Perhaps over-celebration is a risk here. After all, the bill must still clear the desk of President Bush to become law. However, as an amendment to the defense authorization bill, those chances are decent. Let's hope that President Bush does not veto this law and make sure we keep up the pressure on the White House to sign the defense authorization bill into law as amended with the Matthew Shephard Act!

For now, at least, a toast is in order. Progress, at last.