1 post tagged “matthew shepard act”
Senators today decided to drop the Matthew Shepard Bill that was previously appended to the 2008 Defense Authorization Bill. While this is eerily almost a tit for tat re-enactment of what happened 4 years earlier in 2004, things were a little GOP-crazy back then. But today, with the Democrats in the majority of the House . . . we let prevalent and persistent issues such as hate crimes fall by the wayside. If you are not too familiar with what the bill entails and what it would have changed, read more about it here.
Why was it dropped? Because the Democrats thought they weren't going to get enough support the bill, given MSB's "not so germane" association with the Defense Authorization Bill that is would authorize more funding for the war (with Iraq - duh). Somehow, a hate crimes bill got linked with a bill to funnel more money so that we Americans can continue to pick on others because they are different from us. And because we can. Go figure. In all fairness to the Democrats, they did try. And I too would be hard-pressed to vote on a bill such as this one because it makes glaringly clear that what we do at home is not so different from what we do abroad.
I will now move away from my soapbox. Either way, it's disheartening to hear that yet again, the LGBT community has been let down. If only Santa was real, I'd tell him what I want for Christmas.
