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By: LOU CHIBBARO JR. COMMENTS
 
Ninety-six members of the House of Representatives have co-sponsored a bill authorizing
the federal government to prosecute hate crimes based on a person’s sexual
orientation and gender identity, a first-of-its-kind reference to transgendered
persons in federal legislation.
But enthusiasm for the bill by transgender rights activists was dampened when
Senators Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) introduced a Senate
version of the bill on May 26 — the same day the House version was introduced
— that includes a sexual orientation clause but omits the gender identity
language.
“We argued this time for Senators Kennedy and Smith to add the more explicit
language on transgendered people,” said Christopher Labonte, legislative
director for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay political
group.
“They believe their version covers the entire GLBT community,”
Labonte said.
Labonte was referring to the view by Kennedy and Smith that hate crimes committed
against transgendered persons are covered in the Kennedy-Smith bill under language
authorizing federal intervention for hate crimes based on someone’s “actual
or perceived” sexual orientation or gender.
HRC shared that view less than a year ago, when the national gay political
group opposed adding transgender related language to both the hate crimes bill
and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. HRC has since changed its position,
saying it will no longer support ENDA if its congressional sponsors don’t
add trans-inclusive language.
Transgender activists, led by the National Center for Transgender Equality,
have said the explicit language of “gender identity” or “gender
identity and expression” is needed in the hate crimes bill to insure judges
and prosecutors understand that transgendered people are covered under the legislation.
Mara Keisling, the National Center for Transgender Equality’s executive
director, said the more inclusive language would have an impact beyond the prosecution
of hate crimes.
“We pass these laws not just because it’s an extra tool to prosecute
crimes,” she said. “We do it because it educates law enforcement
officials and potential assailants who may commit these crimes.”
Both the House and Senate versions of the legislation call for amending an
existing federal anti-hate crimes statute that authorizes federal prosecution
for hate crimes based on someone’s race, religion and ethnicity. The Kennedy-Smith
bill adds sexual orientation, gender, and disability to the categories covered
under the existing law. The House version adds the categories of sexual orientation,
gender, disability and gender identity.
The lead co-sponsors of the House version are Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.),
who is gay, Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), who is a lesbian, and Reps. John Conyers
(D-Mich), Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), and Illeana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.).
Gay Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) also signed on as a co-sponsor.
As of late last week, when Congress recessed for the Memorial Day holiday, a
total of 96 House members had signed on as co-sponsors for the House bill, H.R.
2662, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2005. Of the 96
co-sponsors, 91 are Democrats and 5 are Republicans.
Forty-three senators, including Kennedy and Smith, signed on as Senate co-sponsors
of the Senate bill, the Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act of 2005, as of
the time of the recess. Of that total, 38 are Democrats and five are Republicans.
Various versions of the Kennedy-Smith bill have been introduced in the Senate
and House since the mid-1990s. The Senate on two occasions passed versions with
sexual orientation language, the most recent last year. The House killed that
version in a House-Senate conference committee, despite the fact that the full
House voted 213-186 to instruct its conferees to support the addition.
Kennedy has not spoken publicly about his position on a gender identity clause
in the hate crimes bills. Capitol Hill insiders have said Kennedy believes adding
such a clause would hurt the bill’s chances of passing and would prompt
several senators to withdraw their support for the legislation.
In the past, as many as 49 senators have signed on as co-sponsors of the Kennedy-Smith
hate crimes bill, six more than the 43 co-sponsors so far this year. A few co-sponsors
from last year, including former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.),
lost their re-election bids to conservative Republicans hostile to gay rights.
Frank, while becoming one of the lead co-sponsors of the hate crimes bill in
the House, which includes transgender language, has said he ...
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