Throughout the country there are many groups such as the ACLU and the HRC (human rights campaign) who are out there fighting the good fight to help the LGBT community to get laws into the books that will condemn hate crimes and discrimination against people of different sexual orientation that the majority of the population. There are also social conservatives who are fighting with organization like the HRC to stop these laws, and are even trying to create ordinances to prevent sexual orientation from being included in any anti-discrimination laws. Currently gays and lesbians are not protected from discrimination by any federal law. California, Connect

On April 25, 2000 President Bill Clinton attempted to expand current hate crime laws to include crimes committed based on the victims sexual orientation, gender, or disabilities. This all came after the murder of Matthew Shepard. Shepard was murdered because of him sexual orientation. “The bill that Clinton was trying to put through would have allowed the government to prosecute his murderers under federal hate crime laws” (www.Speakout.com)

Some like Senator John Kelly (D-MA) believe that having a homosexual fighting next to you would create discomfort. Kerry said “I am not going to sit here and tell you that if you had six cracker - jack people who had all kinds of of experience and one person said they were gay, and the unit went crazy, that I’m going to junk all five of them. It’s just not practical.” (www.Speakout.com) To this people have stated “The military is shooting itself in its foot by increasing the discharge of homosexual service members” (www.Speakout.com) In 1998, the armed forces discharged 1,145 homosexual members, which is a 92 percent increase since the policy was implemented, and in March 2000, service members legal defense network report stated that anti-gay harassment incidents increased 142 percent in the 1999 fiscal year (www.Speakout.com).

icut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin currently have laws prohibiting

Some topics in this essay:
Kelly D-MA, ACLU HRC, Crime Reports, Don’t Pursue”, Currently LGBT, Marriage Law”, David Knight, Supreme Court, Howard Dean, Bill Clinton, sexual orientation, lgbt community, sexual orientation wwwspeakoutcom, hate crimes, orientation wwwspeakoutcom, supreme court, proposition 22, based sexual, fighting fight, bill clinton, based sexual orientation, april 26 2000, 26 2000,