Supporters
of
a
federal
hate
crimes
law
reintroduced
the
same
measure
last
week
that
went
down
to
defeat
in
a
Senate
procedural
vote
in
June
2002.
However,
they
failed
to
reach
a
compromise
with
Republican
opponents
that
might
have
ensured
passage
in
the
Senate.
Republican
and
Democratic
supporters
of
the
bill,
S.
966,
the
Local
Law
Enforcement
Enhancement
Act
of
2003,
say
at
least
60
senators
have
expressed
support
for
the
legislation,
and
they
expect
the
measure
to
come
up
for
a
vote
during
this
session
of
Congress.
The
bill
would
authorize
the
federal
government
to
prosecute
hate
crimes
based
on
a
victim's
sexual
orientation,
gender
and
disability.
It
calls
for
amending
an
existing
law
that
allows
the
federal
government
to
prosecute
hate
crimes
based
only
on
a
person's
race,
religion
and
ethnicity.
Senators
Edward
Kennedy
(D-Mass.),
Gordon
Smith
(R-Ore.)
and
Arlen
Specter
(R-Penn.)
introduced
the
latest
version
of
the
bill
on
May
1.
Forty-six
more
senators
signed
on
as
co-sponsors.
"No
member
of
society — no
one — deserves
to
be
the
victim
of
a
violent
crime
committed
because
of
their
race,
religion,
their
sexual
orientation,
or
for
any
other
reason,"
Kennedy
said
at
a
news
conference.
"Hate
crimes
are
a
violation
of
everything
our
country
stands
for."
"We
need
to
add
the
category
of
sexual
orientation
because
it
is
so
critical
that
we
say
to
our
lesbian
and
gay
brothers
and
sisters
that
we
care
about
you,
we
include
you,
we
want
to
defend
you,"
the
Associated
Press
quoted
Smith,
a
Republican,
as
saying.
"And
we
want
to
say
that
there
is
no
family
value
to
be
served
in
opposing
hate
crime
legislation."
The
Human
Rights
Campaign,
a
national
gay
political
group
that
has
led
efforts
to
lobby
for
a
federal
hate
crimes
bill,
said
the
rising
number
of
anti-gay
hate
crimes
over
the
last
decade
reported
by
the
FBI
has
convinced
most
lawmakers
that
a
hate
crimes
bill
is
needed.
Winnie
Stachelberg,
HRC's
political
director,
said
she
is
hopeful
that
differences
will
be
worked
out
over
the
details
of
the
bill,
enabling
the
Republican-controlled
Senate
to
approve
the
legislation
this
year.
Hatch
led
opposition
Sen.
Orrin
Hatch
(R-Utah)
led
the
opposition
to
the
bill
last
year,
saying
Kennedy
refused
to
consider
changes
he
suggested
that
would
place
limits
on
the
federal
government's
authority
to
supercede
state
and
local
prosecutors
in
enforcing
the
bill's
provisions.
Hatch
and
other
Senate
Republicans
introduced
a
flurry
of
amendments
that
Kennedy
characterized
as
a
thinly
disguised
filibuster
aimed
at
killing
the
bill.
Then-Senate
Majority
Leader
Tom
Daschle
(D-S.D.)
introduced
a
procedural
motion
to
limit
debate
and
allow
a
vote
on
the
bill
itself.
The
motion,
known
as
a
cloture,
requires
60
votes
to
pass.
Daschle's
cloture
motion
lost
by
a
vote
of
54
to
43,
with
all
Democrats
voting
for
the
motion
and
all
but
four
Republicans
voting
against
it.
Specter
and
Sen.
John
Ensign
(R-Nev.)
voted
against
the
cloture
motion
even
though
they
were
co-sponsors
of
the
bill.
The
two
said
they
disagreed
with
Democrats'
decision
to
cut
off
debate.
The
bill's
defeat
last
year
came
after
the
Senate
passed
a
similar
version
of
the
bill
on
two
prior
occasions
in
the
form
of
amendments
to
other
bills,
once
in
1999
and
a
second
time
2000.
Some
political
observers
viewed
last
year's
defeat
as
a
possible
sign
that
the
bill
was
losing
support.
Since
last
year's
vote,
Republicans
won
control
of
the
Senate
in
the
November
2002
elections,
resulting
in
a
more
conservative
leadership,
with
Daschle
replaced
as
majority
leader
by
Sen.
Trent
Lott
(R-Miss.),
who
has
compared
homosexuality
to
alcoholism
and
kleptomania.
Stephanie
Cutter,
a
spokesperson
for
Kennedy,
said
members
of
Kennedy's
and
Hatch's
staffs
began
discussion
last
year
on
a
possible
compromise
version
of
the
bill,
but
the
two
sides
were
unable
to
come
to
an
agreement.
Kennedy
and
the
bill's
supporters
are
"looking
into
every
avenue"
for
getting
the
measure
to
the
Senate
floor
this
year,
Cutter
said.
Lott's
successor
as
majority
leader,
Sen.
Bill
Frist
(R-Tenn.),
has
yet
to
respond
to
a
request
by
the
bill's
supporters
that
he
allow
the
measure
to
come
up
for
a
vote.
At
the
time
of
Frist's
selection,
Log
Cabin
spokesperson
Mark
Mead
expressed
optimism
that
Frist
might
work
more
cooperatively
on
gay
rights
measures,
despite
a
zero
voting
record
in
the
107th
Congress
on
the
Human
Rights
Campaign
scorecard.
Since
his
election
in
1994,
Frist's
HRC
rating
never
reached
higher
than
33
on
a
scale
of
zero
to
100,
and
his
positive
points
are
almost
exclusively
for
votes
on
HIV/AIDS
legislation.
A
spokesperson
for
Frist
did
not
return
a
call
by
press
time.
Last
year,
Rich
Tafel,
then
executive
director
of
the
gay
GOP
group
Log
Cabin
Republicans,
accused
Democrats
of
spurning
a
compromise
with
Hatch
as
part
of
an
election
year
strategy
to
blame
Republicans
for
the
bill's
defeat.
Tafel
said
a
compromise
bill
that
had
Hatch's
support
would
be
the
only
way
the
bill
could
possibly
clear
the
Republican-controlled
House
of
Representatives,
which
has
refused
to
consider
the
bill.
Partisanship
doomed
bill
Patrick
Guerriero,
LCR's
current
executive
director,
said
he
and
LCR
officials
are
working
behind
the
scenes
with
Republicans
and
Democrats
to
reach
a
compromise
on
the
hate
crimes
measure.
Since
taking
office
earlier
this
year,
Guerriero
has
said
he
would
work
hard
to
foster
cooperation
between
gay
Republicans
and
gay
Democrats.
"The
lesson
of
last
year's
hate
crimes
[bill]
failure
was
that
folks
spent
more
time
on
partisan
politics
than
on
ways
to
reach
a
compromise,"
Guerriero
said.
Democrats,
including
gay
party
leaders,
last
year
disputed
Tafel's
claim
that
Democrats
wanted
to
orchestrate
the
bill's
defeat
as
a
ploy
to
blame
Republicans.
They
noted
that
Hatch
introduced
at
least
two
amendments
that
would
have
gutted
the
bill,
raising
questions
about
Hatch's
sincerity.
One
of
his
amendments
called
...
