The U.S. House of Representatives is making strides to include sexual orientations in the national hate crimes laws. A writer at GALiberal.com wrote today on this issue.

The issue of including sexual orientation within the national hate crimes law has long been debated, but it seems that we may finally be making some progress. Interesting that religion is a protected class, but not sexual orientation or gender identity.

Here’s a snippet of the article from GALiberal.com.

On Thursday, the House of Representatives voted to expand the federal hate crimes law to include sexual orientation.  Democrats hailed the vote of 281 to 146, bringing the bill closer to becoming law.   The hate crimes provision has solid support in the Senate and is expected to pass.

Under current federal law, “hate crimes” are those that are motivated by the victim’s race, color, religion or national origin.  The new measure would include crimes motivated by gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

If passed, the federal government would have the authority to prosecute violent crimes (with antigay bias) in those cases when local authorities failed to act. It also allocates $5 million a year assistance to local communities with hate crimes investigations.

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