Matthew Shepard Act passes - thank your senators

Please make this call. My experience is that most of the time people who step up and take risks for our community do _not_ hear thank you. For those of you who live outside of Colorado, you can find your senator's phone number at : http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Please pass this on to anyone you know who might care or be effected. Be aware that things like a Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal, immigration rights, or marriage even, could be more easily passed if our supporters see that we are organized and support our supporters.

Colorado Senators are: 

Sen. Mark Udall (202) 224-5941 and 

Sen. Michael F. Bennet (202) 224-5852, both of whom voted yes to pass the Matthew Shepard Act.

BACKGROUND ON THE MATTHEW SHEPARD ACT:

The Matthew Shepard Act will strengthen existing federal hate crime laws in three ways:

1) Expand the law to authorize the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute certain bias-motivated crimes based on the victim's actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability. Current law only includes race, color, religion or national origin.

2) Eliminate a serious limitation on federal involvment under existing law which requires that a victim of a bias-motivated crime was attacked because he/she was engaged in a specified federally-protected activity such as voting, serving on a jury or attending school.

3) Add "gender" and "gender identity" to the Hate Crimes Statistics Act