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The Lord richly bless you! Our congressional contact wrote me today to let me know that he is setting up the meeting with the Department of Justice. The Department of Justice is attempting to stonewall our contact as well. Gratefully, this is sending up more flags. Congress, however, has a lot more weight than we do and we expect to hear something positive soon. Please pray that the Lord opens the door and Michael and I can sit down and make our appeal known. There are two items we wish to contend for. First, that they cease and desist their deplorable portrayal of Christians as "fundamental hate groups" or "dissident groups." And secondly, that they intervene and put an end to local law enforcement arresting Christians for merely being Christians at homosexual events.

On the "Hate Crimes" legislation front it appears we have a temporary victory. This report is brought to you by a homosexual advocacy group. Clearly our message is reverberated throughout the nation.

GLBT News

Gay Hate Crimes Protections Bill Temporarily Withdrawn
by Kilian Melloy
EDGE Boston Contributor
Friday Jul 20, 2007

Following a Republican filibuster, the Department of Defense Authorization bill--and the potential amendment to the bill that would have provided for federal LGBT hate crimes protection--was withdrawn.

The prospective hate crimes amendment to the bill was filed by Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts and Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon. Anti-gay opponents to the amendment vigorously attempted to portray the amendment as limiting free speech by criminalizing any anti-gay expression; however, the amendment specified that only speech immediately relevant to a crime could be used as evidence in prosecuting that crime, leaving free speech (however ugly it might be) intact.

Even so, according to the Human Rights Campaign, lawmakers were receiving phone calls and emails against the bill at a rate of 5-to-1 versus messages supporting the amendment.

In the end, it was the DoD Authorization bill that was temporarily sunk, and the hate crimes bill with it. In the wake of a Republican filibuster, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pulled the bill from consideration, and that included consideration for the hate crimes amendment to the bill.

Reid suspended consideration of the DoD Authorization bill when the Levin-Reed amendment to the bill, which would have called for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq by next spring, proved unable to garner the 60 votes necessary to end the Republican filibuster, according to an update provided by Human Rights Campaign Legislative Director Allison Herwitt.

Reid’s withdrawal of the bill could result in the current session of Congress not voting on the bill, and the hate crimes amendment, before the session adjourns in August.

"Our Congressional allies-including Senate leadership-remain committed to getting a vote on hate crimes this year," wrote Herwitt. "Senators Kennedy and Smith continue to look for ways to advance this crucial legislation."

Continued Herwitt, "We can use this delay to energize and mobilize our grassroots advocacy to strengthen support for hate crimes. HRC along with coalition allies continues to make sure that our voices are heard. We encourage everyone to keep up the momentum to make the upcoming vote as strong as possible."

Herwitt’s update, distributed the HRC members via email, urged readers to "Continue to call and write your senators and urge them to end hate violence."

Kilian Melloy reviews media, conducts interviews, and writes commentary for EDGEBoston, where he also serves as Assistant Arts Editor.