HRC’s Changing RolesFrom Funding to Lobbying (cont’d)Fairness Fund Merger/Hate CrimesIn 1988, HRCF merged with the Fairness Fund. Together they encouraged Congress to pass H.R. 3193, the Hate Crimes Statistics Act, “which would require the U. S. Dept. of Justice to collect and publish statistics on crimes motivated by prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation or ethnicity.” As the Congressional Action Alert shown here stated, “This bill is an important step in addressing the pervasive problem of anti-gay violence - a problem that has been exacerbated by the AIDS crisis.” HRCF and FF worked to make sure that the bill was not amended to exclude sexual orientation from the list of identities covered by the bill. The bill was enacted in 1990.
HRC has kept the spotlight on the issue of hate crimes, running a television ad on the topic in 1992, as described in this press release.
Since 1990, the Hate Crimes Statistics Act has required the government to collect and examine statistics based on sexual orientation-related bias. Other existing legislation gives the federal government the prerogative to assist with state governments’ prosecution of bias-related violent crimes. However, this legislation does not cover bias based on sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability. HRC’s August 10, 2001 news release about the murder of Fred Martinez, Jr., points out the deficiency of current federal law that “does not allow the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate hate crimes based solely on the victim’s sexual orientation.”
Today, HRC is lobbying on behalf of the Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act, which remedies these discrepancies and also adds gender to the list of identities covered by the Hate Crimes Statistics Act.
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