Unfinished Lives

Remembering LGBT Hate Crime Victims

Do The Right Thing on Hate Crimes Legislation: The F-22 Ploy

f-22-topAfter a hard review of the facts on the passage of the Matthew Shepard Act as a part of the DOD Appropriations Bill, the Unfinished Lives Team supports a Presidential veto if the final version is still inclusive of increased funding for the F-22 Raptor fighter jet program.  Conservative Republican U.S. Senators feel pretty good about now because of the bind they believe they have put President Obama in.  They cynically stonewall any attempt to remove the F-22 program from the DOD bill, citing “job creation” in hard economic times, and national defense.  As Emma Ruby-Sachs writes for 365gay.com, these Republican Senators are counting on LGBT Americans, for whom they do not care a whit, to become angry with Obama again for broken promises over the veto of a wasteful, obsolete fighter jet program that not only the President opposes, but the Pentagon as well.  Here is where the LGBT community can rise to the occasion, and eliminate the problem for the President on his left flank.  We at Unfinished Lives support the President if he needs to veto the bill, even inclusive of the Matthew Shepard Act Amendment.  We are not uncritical of this president.  He has given favors to the LGBT community with one hand, and taken them away with the other from the time of his election.  He and the Democratic leadership in the House and the Senate must make good on their promises to us, not just because we  supported them heavily in this last election cycle, but because it is the right thing to do for the sake of our constitutional democracy.  This is a matter of justice.  One murder at the hands of homophobes is one death too many, and our community is suffering every day, as this blog site has demonstrated for over a year now.  But the cynicism of  the Republican conservative leadership apparently knows no bounds.   They believe LGBT people are not just perverse.  They must believe we are fools to boot.  They believe that they can pawn off death and destruction abroad in the guise of an F-22 project and in exchange enact hate crimes legislation that they should have passed 15 years ago.  This is a bargain we reject, and a crass gamble we want them to lose.  The Matthew Shepard Act must be passed by this Congress!  But on this one, we stand with the President.

July 20, 2009 - Posted by | anti-LGBT hate crime murder, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, Matthew Shepard Act, Politics, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. | , , , , , ,

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