Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Jared Polis: Why hate crime legislation is important


The death of Colorado transgender teenager Angie Zapata is an urgent reminder of the need for Congress to pass a federal hate-crimes statute, writes out U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., a co-sponsor of the bill.

"People from all over the country were appalled a decade ago when gay student Matthew Shepard was beaten to death in Wyoming," Polis writes. "We should be even more appalled that in those 10 years, our nation has failed to adopt a federal hate-crimes bill."