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Breaking News from America's Progressive Community... Latest Releases
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| SEPTEMBER
30, 1998 3:27 PM FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Human Rights Campaign |
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| Congress Passes Legislation For Colleges To Report Hate Crimes Statistics, Including Sexual Orientation; President Clinton Expected To Sign Bill, Asserts HRC | ||||
| WASHINGTON
- September 30 - The U.S. Senate voted 96-0 to pass the Higher Education Reauthorization
Act. A part of this bill, which was taken from the Campus Right to Know Act, will
require campus police to report incidents of hate crimes on the basis of sexual
orientation, disability, religion, gender and ethnicity. The bill is an important
step in providing students access to information allowing them to choose a school in which
they will be safe, according to the Human Rights Campaign. "This legislation sends the clear message that hate crimes are serious offenses and should not be swept under the carpet. This open policy allows gay and lesbian students to know if they may be at higher risk by attending certain schools. This legislation also allows schools with a high incidence of hate crimes to identify their problems and fix them," said HRC political director Winnie Stachelberg. The House passed the bill the day before by a voice vote and now it will go to President Clinton who is expected to sign it into law. Before this legislation, existing federal reporting requirements only mandated colleges and universities to report hate crimes that result in murder, rape, or aggravated assault. This was inadequate because the majority of hate crimes on campuses are not this extreme. Most incidents come in the form of assaults, or lesser crimes. Unfortunately, vandalism and intimidation as incidents that campus police must report to the Department of Education were not included in this bill. In 1990, Congress enacted the Hate Crimes Statistics Act (HCSA) in an effort to measure the extent of the hate crime problem in America. In 1992, Congress enacted the Campus Security Act to require colleges and universities to annually report crime statistics in an effort to measure campus crime and increase security awareness. With the passage of this section of the Higher Education Reauthorization Act, campus police will now also report incidents of hate crimes on the basis of sexual orientation, disability, religion, gender and ethnicity. "The first step to solving a problem is acknowledging it exists. This bill will provide the necessary tools for college administrators to recognize that their institutions may be incubators for hateful activity," said HRC senior policy advocate Kris Pratt. The Human Rights Campaign is the largest national lesbian and gay political organization, with members throughout the country. It effectively lobbies Congress, provides campaign support, and educates the public to ensure that lesbian and gay Americans can be open, honest, and safe at home, at work, and in the community. - 30 - |
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