Steve Lucas has seen his share of bullying, harassment and violence because of sexual orientation and identity -- a problem he said has yet to be addressed by the American government.
"Students in high schools and colleges experience this stuff every school year," Lucas (senior-English) said. "They get beat up ... and some people do die."
But for Lucas, president of Penn State's Rainbow Roundtable, and other young people who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, newly passed hate crime legislation could help bring justice to perpetrators.
The federal legislation, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, now includes crimes committed against people based on gender, sexual orientation, sexual identity and disability under the statutes of hate crimes, which previously only covered color, nationality, religion and race. President Barack Obama is expected to sign the legislation into law later this month.
Despite resistance, the act was passed Oct. 8 by the U.S. House of Representatives and later confirmed by the United States Senate by a vote of 68 to 29, according to the House's Web site.
The act is named for Shepard, a gay college student who was beaten to death and tied to a fence in Wyoming, and James Byrd, a black man who died after being tied to the back of a truck and dragged behind it. The act was attached to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010, which includes appropriations for the Department of Defense's military activities and funding for injured veterans.
Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., voted against the legislation earlier this month.
He said when groups of people get special treatment, more people are left out.
"A crime is a crime, a victim is a victim, and justice is justice," Thompson said. "The laws should be swift and penalizing for anyone -- doesn't matter what the background of the victim is."
Thompson said he also doesn't like how the legislation was attached to an unrelated bill and he didn't think that was the best way to debate public policy.
Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., who was one of the original sponsors of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 1997, voted for the legislation. He said in a news release that he is pleased the bill passed and is on its way to the White House.
"Hate crimes are uniquely destructive and divisive because they injure not only the immediate victim but the community and entire nation," Specter said in the release. "It's long overdue that we enact legislation that will bring justice to those who commit violent crimes based on bigotry and prejudice."
When it comes to physical and emotional abuse toward some members of the LGBT community, Thompson said those behaviors are unacceptable and shouldn't be tolerated.
But Thompson said if the court system functioned like it's supposed to, there wouldn't be a need for hate crime laws.
"If our justice system is
operating fairly and appro-
priately, it would feed the needs that we have," Thompson said.
Lucas is glad to see the government recognizes the need to address violence against the LGBT community.
"What I hope is that it shows the government is committed to stand up for those who identify as LGBT," Lucas said. "It's a hopeful time for other issues that we're looking at in the future. It's the first time we see a commitment on a national level."
