Thanking Members of Congress

Because the road to enactment of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was long and winding, with many votes in both chambers of Congress, there has been some confusion about which votes were the truest indication of support for the legislation.

When considering whether to thank your members of congress or express your disappointment in their votes, please use the following votes.

House of Representatives – the 4/29/09 vote on final passage of freestanding hate crimes legislation - Roll Call Vote 223 - 249 y/175 n/10 nv - http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll223.xml

Senate – the 7/16/09 vote to invoke cloture on including hate crimes legislation within the Department of Defense Authorization bill - Roll Call Vote 233 -  63 y/28 n/9 nv - http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm...

We encourage you to send personal letters to your own members of congress.

Please encourage your friends, family members, colleagues and political contacts to visit http://www.LoveConquersHate.org for more on the hate crimes bill and what it took over these past many years to get to today’s signing.