Shepard bill passes

The US House of Representatives has passed the Matthew Shepard Bill – a -˜Hate Crimes Bill’ which will mean additional law enforcement resources will be set aside for crimes against minorities including sexual orientation and gender identity.
Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts will introduce the Senate version of the bill soon. President Obama has suggested that he strongly supports the bill and will sign it should it come to his desk, reports the AFP.
The bill was named after Matthew Shepard, who was tortured and murdered in an anti-gay hate crime in Wyoming back in 1998, aged 21. Since his death, his mother Judy became a well-known advocate for LGBT equality and gay young issues. She championed the Hate Crimes Bill.
Bipartisan support for the bill came despite North Carolina Republican Republican Virginia Foxx claiming Shepard’s death was not an anti-gay crime. She claimed the young man was -œkilled in the commitment of a robbery. That version of events is an urban myth, said others at the bill’s reading.