With 247 Ayes, 175 Nays, and 10 abstaining, H.R. 1913, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Act of 2009, passed the US House yesterday afternoon. You can see pie charts of the vote breakdown at Open Congress.
Additionally, here is some jaw-dropping commentary from Catholic blogger, Les Femmes:
I got word a few minutes ago from a friend who works on the the Hill that H.R. 1913 titled Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, the so-called hate-crimes bill, passed in the House 249 to 175. (You can read it here.)
While this bill primarily addresses violent crime, it marks the beginning of criminalizing speech and thought. Remember when abortion was allowed for the hard cases? Rape and incest were the wedges that led to Roe v. Wade and abortion on demand. . .We already have the template for what this means – Canada. Preachers there have been fined and imprisoned for quoting the Bible. A Canadian acquaintance emailed me that she has to be very careful about what she puts on her blog. There is no free speech on homosexuality in Canada.
