WASHINGTON — A long-stalled bill that would expand the federal hate crime law to cover violent acts based on a victim's gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability is headed for approval in the Democratic-controlled Congress but faces a White House veto threat.
The House on Thursday approved the measure, the first major expansion of the hate crime statute since it was enacted in 1968. Senate approval is expected soon, putting the controversial bill on the president's desk for the first time since it was proposed nearly a decade ago.
Under intense pressure from conservative religious organizations to derail the bill, the White House on Thursday called it "unnecessary and constitutionally questionable," issuing the latest in a string of veto threats aimed at the congressional Democratic majority.
The measure was spurred by a number of high-profile incidents, including the 1998 killing of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student who was brutally beaten in Wyoming and left to die tied to a fence.
Shepard's mother, Judy, who lobbied for the bill's passage, addressed House Democrats shortly before the vote and watched the debate from the gallery. "I'm so relieved. It's been a long time," she said afterward.
The House approved the bill 237 to 180, with 25 Republicans joining 212 Democrats in passing it. Voting no were 166 Republicans and 14 Democrats. The California delegation voted along party lines, except for Republican Mary Bono of Palm Springs, who supported the measure. Republicans Duncan Hunter of El Cajon and George P. Radanovich of Mariposa did not vote.
The vote was short of the two-thirds needed to override a presidential veto.
Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group, said he hoped President Bush would sign the bill.
"We are not going to stop working on this president," he said. "There's time before this goes to the president's desk. I hope that we have an opportunity to engage the White House ... to talk to him about the kind of legacy he wants to look back upon."
Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, called the White House veto threat "extraordinarily disappointing" and accused the bill's vocal opponents of using it to rally their base "around fear."
"This really is a criminal justice issue, where we have groups of people who face heightened victimization because of their group's status," said Levin, a lawyer and professor of criminal justice.
