[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 18]
[House]
[Pages 24331-24332]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HATE CRIMES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Chu) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. CHU. Madam Speaker, America has made great strides in the last 
century to provide rights and protections to our most disadvantaged 
communities. Laws were made that limited the workday and made it 
illegal for companies to profit from child labor. Women were given the 
right to vote. The Civil Rights Act codified Martin Luther King's dream 
by ensuring that all people of color could obtain equal rights.
  But the fight is not over. People are still trying to deny Americans 
equal protection under the law for being who they are. Yesterday 
Republicans tried to block an important provision to protect gays, 
lesbians, transgenders, and bisexuals from being targeted, harassed, 
injured, or even killed due to acts of bias and hatred. The Matthew 
Shepherd Hate Crimes Prevention Act would give the LGBT community the 
same protections already provided to other groups that have been 
discriminated against in our Nation's history.
  Many are familiar with the hatred and bigotry perpetrated against 
people of different races and religions. Take the case of Kenny Chiu, a 
17-year-old Asian American from Orange County, California, who was 
simply standing in the driveway of his own home when he was grabbed and 
brutally stabbed 26 times. In the last hour of his life, he was able to 
identify his killer. It was his 20-year-old next-door neighbor, who was 
a Neo-Nazi sympathizer and was looking for a minority to kill.
  But members of the LGBT community face the same harassment every day 
just for being who they are. Larry King was a gay eighth-grader from 
Ventura, California, who used to come to school dressed differently. He 
was the subject of great harassment. Other boys made fun of him, called 
him names, and threw wet paper towels at him in the boys' restroom. 
Then one morning behind the computer lab at his junior high school, a 
fellow classmate shot him twice in the head. In contrast to the case of 
Kenny Chiu, Larry King's murder is not covered by our Federal hate 
crimes law. This must change.
  When asked by my constituents why I support this bill, I describe my 
experience as Chair of the California State Assembly's Select Committee 
on Hate Crimes, where I held hearings on hate crimes across all the 
communities of the State. After hearing these horrific stories and 
listening to their heartbroken families, I know I cannot fight for the 
civil rights of one group without fighting for the civil rights of the 
other. Things will not change until people stand up and say we will not 
tolerate making anybody in America a second-class citizen. As long as 
intolerance exists, as long as there are people out there that turn a 
blind eye to hate and bigotry, then we as a human race are doomed to 
repeat the horrors of the past.
  In California what happened to Larry King is considered a hate crime. 
It is one of only five States in the Nation that include sexual 
orientation and gender identity in the definition of a hate crime. But 
in the Nation many are left without such protection because Federal law 
leaves many States without the resources or expertise to effectively 
investigate and prosecute bias-motivated violent crimes in the LGBT 
community. That is why tomorrow we must pass the Matthew Shepherd Hate 
Crimes Prevention Act so that every teenager who goes to school can be 
who they are knowing they are protected by the United States of 
America.

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