Aloha!

Obama Signs Hate Crimes Bill!

President Barack Obama made it a federal hate crime to assault people based on sexual orientation, gender and gender identity when he signed the Matthew Shepard & James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act today.

Family Equality Coalition thanks all the members who participated in the advocacy alerts we forwarded along from Human Rights Campaign and Equality Federation. Your voice was heard!

Also cause for celebration: All Hawaii's officials in the House (Reps. Mazie Hirono & Neil Ambercrombie) and Senate (Sens. Daniel Akaka and Dan Inouye) all voted for the bill!

To read more about this historic day, here's some great links:

From The Huffington Post(with video): Click here.
From Casper (WY) Star-Tribune: Click here.
From National Public Radio: Click here.

And for those of you who did participate in our advocacy alerts, here's a link to a thank you from Judy Shepard, Matthew's mother and the crusader that kept this legislation going for 11 years. To view Judy's message, click here.

Again, Family Equality Coalition thanks Judy Shepard for her tireless work and those of you who did help make this day possible!

Sincerely,
The Family Equality Coaltion Board

Family Equality Coalition is dedicated to creating a Hawaii in which gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people and their families have full equality in all areas of the law.

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