The Senate is currently considering the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act (S. 909), a bill that would provide significant improvements to our current hate crimes laws. The House of Representatives already passed the bill in April. S. 909 expands the coverage of existing hate crime laws to include crimes not only based on race, color, religion, and national origin, but also bias-motivated crimes based on the victim's actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability. It also provides the federal government jurisdiction to prosecute hate crimes in states where current law or local law enforcement action are inadequate. This increased protection will also help ethnic and racial groups that continue to be subjected to bias-motivated violence and intimidation. Schedule a meeting or call your senators while they are home and urge their support for swift passage of S. 909 to fight hate crimes and provide safety and security for all people. Learn more about S. 909.
We applaud the Obama administration's leadership and its efforts to end abstinence-only-until marriage programs. He has taken an important first step. Now it's time for Congress to implement that recommendation. The House is in the midst of writing its Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS-Education) spending bills. One of these is the spending bill that decides funding levels for, among other things, abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. We need your Representative to weigh in with Appropriations Chairman David Obey to ensure that Congress follows the President's lead and that No More Money is spent on abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. We need you to contact your Representative and ask him or her to ensure that No More Money is spent on abstinence-only-until-marriage programs.
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