A new Gallup poll
shows an overwhelming majority of Americans support the
hate-crimes bill now before Congress.
The bill would
expand federal hate-crimes law to cover crimes committed
against people because of their sexual orientation, gender,
or gender identity. According to the poll, conducted
May 10-13, support for the bill cut across
partisan, ideological, and religious lines.
The bill, known
as the Local Law Hate Crimes Prevention Act,
passed the House of Representatives on May 3. Its
identical counterpart, the Matthew Shepard Act, now
sits before the Senate. The White House has released a
statement saying that aides are advising the president
to veto the bill.
"This new
national poll continues to reiterate how incredibly out of
touch right-wing organizations are with the will of the
American people and underscores the need for the
Senate to pass the bill," said Human Rights Campaign
president Joe Solmonese in a
press release. "I hope President Bush will look at
this poll and realize how unbelievably out of line a
threatened veto of this critical crime-fighting piece
of legislation is with a majority of Americans."
According to the
HRC, when broken down by self-identified demographic
subgroups, the poll found the following majorities support
passage of the hate-crimes bill:
60% of
Republicans 69% of Independents 75% of
Democrats
64% of those who
attend church regularly 67% of those who attend
church almost every week/monthly 73% of those who
attend church seldom/never (The Advocate)
