THE 1999 HATE CRIMES PREVENTION ACT



The National Organization for Women is urging passage of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act (HCPA) of 1999 (H.R. 1082 and S.622).  This bill  would extend the protection of the current federal hate crimes law to include those who are victimized because of their sexual orientation, gender, or disability. The HCPA would also strengthen current law regarding hate crimes based on race, religion, and national origin.
 

There is growing support for the Hate Crimes Act

•President Clinton and Vice-President Gore have both called for the passage of this bill, and Congress is currently beginning to look at the HCPA in depth.

•A hearing will be held this week in the Senate when the Senate Judiciary Committee meets to consider S.622.

•House Judiciary Committee Chair Henry Hyde has also promised to hold hearings in his committee for H.R. 1082, which is identical to S.622.

STOP  HATE  CRIMES !

•Nearly one-quarter of community college students who took part in a survey admitted to harassing people they thought were gay.  Among men, 18% said that they had physically assaulted or threatened someone they thought was gay or lesbian; 32% admitted they were guilty of verbal harassment, according to a 1998 study by the Washington Institute for Mental Illness Research and Training.

•In December 1995, lesbian activists and life partners, Roxanne Ellis and Michelle Abdill were shot to death in Oregon.  Their killer confessed to murdering them in part because they were lesbians.

•In October 1998, Matthew Shepard, a 21-year old gay student at the University of Wyoming, was brutally beaten unconscious, tied to a fence, and left to die in freezing weather by two men because he was gay.

•A mentally disabled man from Port Monmouth was kidnaped by a group of nine men and women and was tortured for three hours, then dumped with a pillowcase over his head.  Prosecutors believe the attack was motivated by disability bias.

•Two days after her second wedding anniversary in 1990, an Arkansas woman was found stabbed approximately 130 times in the breasts, vagina, buttocks, eyes, and forehead.  Her husband has been charged with the murder.

•In May 1988, on the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania, a horrific shooting attack left 28 year old Rebecca Wight dead.  Her life partner, Claudia Brenner was seriously wounded and lived to write the story “Eight Bullets: One Woman’s Story of Surviving Anti-Gay Violence.”

Contact your Congressmember and urge their support for the Hate Crimes Prevention Act. For more information contact NOW at (202) 331-0066 or visit our website www.now.org

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