May 25, 2007  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO J  | COMMENTS     

On the morning of April 3, Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay civil rights group, escorted Judy Shepard and Dave O’Malley into the U.S. Capitol, where the two spoke before a meeting of the Democratic members of the House of Representatives.

Shepard, mother of gay hate crime victim Matthew Shepard, and O’Malley, former police chief in Laramie, Wyo., who investigated Shepard’s murder, were given a rare opportunity to make a personal appeal urging House Democrats to vote for the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

Later that day, the House passed the act by a vote of 236 to 180, marking the first time either house of Congress had passed a free-standing gay and transgender civil rights bill. The bill, H.R. 1592, would give the federal government authority to prosecute hate crimes targeting victims because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender or disability.

HRC’s effort to arrange for Shepard and O’Malley’s appearance before a meeting of the House Democratic Caucus was one of the last-minute components of an extensive congressional lobbying campaign on behalf of the legislation organized by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the nation’s most prominent civil rights organization.

Although gay rights groups like HRC and the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force played key roles in lobbying for the hate crimes measure, the Leadership Conference, widely known as the LCCR, is credited with mobilizing its vast network of mainline civil rights organizations to build the support needed to get the bill through the House, activists familiar with the group said.

The LCCR is now turning its attention to the Senate, coordinating efforts to lobby senators to back the bill when it comes up for a Senate vote later this year.

“It all begins with the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights,” said Allison Herwitt, HRC’s legislative director and chief lobbyist on Capitol Hill.

“They view this in the board context of civil rights,” Herwitt said, noting that the LCCR’s history and prestige have provided a pivotal boost for both the hate crimes bill and other gay rights legislation.

Black civil rights leaders A. Philip Randolph and Roy Wilkins and national Jewish community leader Arnold Aronson founded the LCCR in 1950 in an effort to bring about equal rights for minorities through a new social justice coalition, according to the group’s web site.

The group helped organize the internationally acclaimed 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington led by Martin Luther King Jr. It also played the lead role in lobbying for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965 and Fair Housing Act of 1968, which are credited with helping to combat racial discrimination in the United States.

Starting out in 1950 with 30 member groups, consisting mostly of civil rights and labor organizations, the LCCR now has nearly 200 member organizations that represent a wide range of ethnic and racial minorities, religions and social justice advocacy groups, including the ACLU and the AFL-CIO.

Five national gay rights groups are listed as LCCR member organizations: HRC; the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force; Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays; Pride At Work; and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. HRC is listed as a member of the LCCR’s Executive Committee.

As it has in past efforts to lobby for important legislation, the LCCR formed a working group called the Hate Crimes Task Force in 1999 to coordinate its lobbying efforts for a federal hate crimes bill, which was first proposed in 1997. LCCR named HRC and two other member groups, the Anti-Defamation League and the National Council of Jewish Women, to join LCCR as co-chairs of the task force.

Herwitt said she and other HRC officials have attended regular meetings of the task force in Washington to help LCCR map lobbying strategy for the hate crimes measure.

Lisa Mottet, transgender civil rights project director for the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, said she and other Task Force officials also have attended LCCR task force meetings.

Herwitt and Mottet describe the LCCR strategy for passing the hate crimes bill in Congress as one of activating networks of grassroots constituencies that resemble branches of a tree. LCCR member groups, including gay organizations as well as black, Latino, women’s, and Jewish groups, among many others, each encouraged respective members from their home states to call or send e-mails to their representatives urging support for the hate crimes bill, Herwitt and Mottet said.

In the weeks leading up to the vote, HRC organized Washington lobbying visits by a group of more than 200 clergy ...