Obama to sign hate crimes bill into law tomorrow

Less than a week after the U.S. Senate passed a bill that would add sexual orientation and gender identity and expression to federal hate crimes laws, the White House has announced President Barack Obama will sign the legislation tomorrow afternoon.

I post this blog less than 24 hours after an admittedly emotional visit to the site of an African burial ground here in Key West. It contains the remains of 294 people who died from disease after the U.S. Navy rescued them and more than 1,000 others from three illegal Cuba-bound slave ships in 1860. The United States has certainly made monumental strides since islanders came to the aid of those the federal government freed from bondage in the Florida Straits. And Obama's signature will mark yet another important chapter in the ongoing quest to ensure all Americans receive essential legal protections.

A single piece of legislation will certainly not end hate and bias-motivated crimes, but the fact the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act will become law tomorrow cannot go understated.

Congress debates hate crimes bill

While members of the Senate Judiciary Committee continued to question Judge Sonia Sotomayor during her Supreme Court nomination hearing, lawmakers also debated a bill that would add sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, among other things, to federal anti-hate crimes statutes.

Lawmakers could vote on the bill, dubbed the Matthew Shepard Act, by the end of the week. Legislators have attacked the proposed legislation to a $680 billion defense spending bill. And U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer [D-N.Y.] was among those who spoke in support of the bill yesterday.

Schumer evoked Ecuadorian immigrant José Sucuzhañay, who was allegedly beaten to death by Hakim Scott and Keith Phoenix on a Bushwick street corner last December as he and his brother walked home arm-and-arm from a nearby bar, during his testimony.

"This bill sends a clear message to those perpetrators and others that in America we don't tolerate violence against vulnerable communities," Schumer said.

A vote on the bill could come as early as this afternoon.