by the Human Rights Campaign

About the author: The Human Rights Campaign works for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender equal rights.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans are frequent targets of vicious hate crimes. Yet only in rare circumstances can the federal government assist in the investigation and prosecution of hate crimes committed against someone because of his or her real or perceived sexual orientation or gender. This prevents federal law enforcement authorities from assisting in these cases in the same fashion as hate crimes based on race, color, religion or national origin. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) advocates for the addition of actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation and disability to the laws governing prosecution of hate crimes, and believes that these hate crimes should be investigated and prosecuted on an equal basis...