It's great to be back with you here at DailyKos! In the past, I've usually blogged to ask you to help respond to an urgent crisis. Well today I'm proud to tell you about an important, hard-fought victory that we won last night.
Just before midnight Thursday, the Senate finally passed the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act as an amendment to the defense authorization bill. This legislation is long overdue, and now we're finally on the verge of getting it signed into law.
On Wednesday, I spoke out on the Senate floor about the senseless death of Matthew Shepard, a tragedy that showed us we have a long way to go before we can truly say in this country there is equal justice for all. More than 10 years ago, two men offered Matthew, a gay man, a ride in their car. Subsequently, he was robbed. He was pistol whipped. He was tortured. He was tied to a fence in a remote rural area. And he was left to die.
This was a brutal, vicious hate crime -- and we've got to do everything in our power to make sure nothing like it ever happens again.
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