WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed and celebrated hate-crime legislation that extends protection to people based on sexual orientation, sealing a long-fought victory for gay advocates. The president spoke of a nation becoming a place where “we’re all free to live and love as we see fit.”
The new law expands federal hate crimes to include those committed against people because of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. It also loosens limits on when federal law enforcement can intervene and prosecute crimes, amounting to the biggest expansion of the civil-rights-era law in decades.
“No one in America should ever be afraid to walk down the street holding the hands of the person they love,” Obama said in the East Room, surrounded by joyous supporters. “No one in America should be forced to look over their shoulder because of who they are, or because they live with a disability.”
Civil-rights groups and their Democratic backers on Capitol Hill tried for a decade to expand the hate-crimes law but fell short because of a lack of coordination between the House and Senate, or opposition from President George W. Bush. This time, the bill got through when Democrats attached it to a must-pass $680 billion defense measure. Obama signed the combined bill in a separate ceremony earlier Wednesday.
Conservatives argue that it creates a special class of victims and could serve to silence clergymen or others opposed to homosexuality on religious or philosophical grounds. The bill was changed before it was passed in Congress to strengthen free-speech protections.
The bill is named for Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, whose family members stood with Obama. Shepard, a gay college student, was beaten and found tied to a fence in Wyoming in 1998. He died five days later. The same year, Byrd, a black man, was chained to a pickup by three white men and dragged to his death in Texas.
“We must stand against crimes that are meant not only to break bones, but to break spirits; not only to inflict harm, but to instill fear,” Obama said.
