Hate-crimes
provisions struck from House bill

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee has eliminated hate-crimes provisions benefiting gays and lesbians from a child safety bill. The language had been added to the Children's Safety and Violent Crimes Reduction Act of 2005 on a strong bipartisan vote last fall, but Republican representative James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin used a procedural move to get rid of it. The hate-crimes language would have allowed federal authorities to help investigate and prosecute attacks on gays and lesbians. Conservative groups lobbied hard against the amendment, but it passed last September on a vote of 233-199. In reaction to Sensenbrenner's move, Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solomonese said in a statement, "The United States Congress is not a card game. You can't just keep reshuffling the deck if you don't like the first hand the majority deals you." Two senators have discussed introducing hate-crimes language to the Senate's version of the child safety resolution. Then a House-Senate committee would decide whether to include it in the final language before the bill becomes law. (Sirius OutQ News)