For the first time in history, a federal equality measure protecting LGBT rights has become law.  On October 28, 2009, President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hates Crimes Prevention Act into law.  This new law gives the Justice Department the power to investigate and prosecute bias motivated violence where the perpetrator has selected the victim because of the person’s actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

The new law also provides the Justice Department with the ability to aid state and local jurisdictions either by lending assistance or, where local authorities are unwilling or unable, by taking the lead in investigations and prosecutions of violent crime resulting in death or serious bodily injury that were motivated by bias.  It also makes grants available to state and local communities to combat violet crimes committed by juveniles, train law enforcement officers, or to assist in state and local investigations and prosecutions of bias motivated crimes.

This is a monumental victory in the Human Rights movement, and something that is long overdue.  It took 12 years, over one millions emails, faxes and phone calls to Congress, and 14 separate votes on the floors of the House and the Senate to turn the hate crimes bill into law.