May 11, 2007  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO J  | COMMENTS     

Gay rights advocates hailed last week’s passage of a federal hate crimes bill by the House of Representatives, but even supporters acknowledge they likely do not have the votes needed to overcome a presidential veto, which White House advisers are recommending.

The bill now goes to the U.S. Senate, where it has 43 co-sponsors. Supporters say the Senate could vote on the measure in late spring or summer. Senate supporters recently renamed the bill the Matthew Shepard Act in honor of the gay University of Wyoming student who was slain in a 1998 hate crime.

Several conservative Christian groups quickly denounced the bill’s passage and vowed to step up a campaign to derail it in the Senate.

Representatives from the Southern Baptist Convention, Concerned Women for America and other groups held a news conference this week to criticize the bill as “criminalizing Christianity” and to announce plans for a mailing to U.S. senators that characterizes the hate crimes bill as a “thought crimes bill.” 

The House voted 236 to 180 last week to approve the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, marking the first time either house of Congress has passed a freestanding gay and transgender civil rights bill.

The April 3 vote came after supporters braced for an anticipated attempt by House opponents to derail the bill by forcing a separate vote on whether to remove a provision giving the federal government authority to prosecute hate crimes targeting transgender persons.

“That was what we thought they might do,” said one House Democratic staff member, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Some gay activists feared that Democratic House members from moderate to conservative districts, who otherwise planned to vote for the bill, might have backed such a motion to avoid being portrayed as “pro-transgender.”

But for unknown reasons, conservative GOP leaders chose another parliamentary tactic aimed at sending the bill back to committee with instructions to add protections for senior citizens and current and former members of the military. The motion lost by a vote of 227 to 189.

“This is a historic day that moves all Americans closer to safety from the scourge of hate violence,” said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the national gay advocacy group that has coordinated efforts to pass the bill.

The bill, H.R. 1592, would give the federal government authority to prosecute hate crimes that target people based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender and disability. Under existing law, federal authorities already have the power to prosecute hate crimes based on race, color, national origin and religion.

It also would provide financial assistance to help state and local law enforcement agencies investigate and prosecute hate crimes. Most of the nation’s police departments and state and local prosecutors expressed strong support for the bill.

In an action viewed as a strong gesture of support, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) arranged for gay Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) to serve as the House presiding officer while the final roll-call vote was taken on the measure.

“The bill is passed,” Frank said with a booming voice, seconds after he read the vote tally and pounded the gavel. His House Democratic colleagues, standing on the floor before him, broke into applause.

Prospects for the final outcome of the bill became less certain last week when the White House issued a statement saying senior advisers to President Bush would recommend that he veto the measure.

“The administration favors strong criminal penalties for violent crimes, including crimes based on personal characteristics, such as race, color, national origin,” the statement said. “However, the Administration believes H.R. 1592 is unnecessary and constitutionally questionable. If H.R. 1592 were presented to the president, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill,” the statement said.

Most Capitol Hill observers have said supporters most likely could not line up the two-thirds majority vote in the House and Senate needed to override a presidential veto.

Judy Shepard and Dave O’Malley, the former chief law enforcement officer of Laramie, Wyo., who investigated the Matthew Shepard murder, each gave impassioned presentations on behalf of the bill to House Democrats in a caucus meeting just prior to the start of the House debate on the bill, according to HRC Vice President David Smith.

One source familiar with the meeting said Shepard described the horror of losing a loved one to a hate crime while O’Malley, who has described himself as a conservative law enforcement official, told of his first impressions after seeing the 21-year-old Shepard unconscious and tied to a fence in a remote field.

Smith and Solmonese ...