The 2009 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act created a federal law criminalizing violent acts against people due to their religion, nationality, gender, sexual orientation or disability. The law gave, among other things, federal authorities greater flexibility to prosecute hate crimes that local authorities choose not to pursue, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. But prosecutors did not pursue a case centered on a victim’s gender identity until several years after the law’s enactment.
Advocates tried for over a decade to pass what was, at the time, The Matthew Shepherd Act after the tragic 1998 killing of Matthew Shepherd to make the killing based on the victim’s LGBTQ+ status a federal hate crime, but the bill that ended up getting passed - one of Obama’s first and a campaign promise - was far more robust, and included all minorities.
Justice
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Advocates tried for over a decade to pass what was, at the time, The Matthew Shepherd Act after the tragic 1998 killing of Matthew Shepherd to make the killing based on the victim’s LGBTQ+ status a federal hate crime, but the bill that ended up getting passed - one of Obama’s first and a campaign promise - was far more robust, and included all minorities.