Social Conservatives Mount Last-Ditch Effort to Stop Hate Crimes Bill
Social conservatives opposed to a hate crimes bill that would extend federal protection to gay and transgender victims and nearing passage in Congress are mounting a last-ditch effort to defeat it.

FOXNews.com
Friday, October 09, 2009

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/09/social-conservatives-mount-ditch-effort-stop-hate-crime/

Social conservatives opposed to a hate crimes bill that would extend federal protection to gay and transgender victims are mounting a last-ditch effort to defeat it -- even as it nears passage in Congress

The House voted Thursday to make it a federal crime to assault people because of their sexual orientation, significantly expanding the U.S. hate crimes law enacted in the days after the 1968 assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr..

The Senate is expected to pass the bill, allowing federal prosecutors for the first time to intervene in cases of violence perpetrated against gays.