South Florida Republicans Embrace Hate Crimes Bill

It was not terribly surprising that every Democrat in Florida - even that borderline Dixiecrat Allen Boyd of the Panhandle - voted for the fully-inclusive LGBT hate crimes bill (the "Matthew Shepard Bill") that just passed the House. The bill will now go to the Senate, where it also likely to pass, and should almost certainly be signed by President Obama before the end of the summer. Based on the GOP's adamant opposition to any form of LGBT equality, you might have expected every single Republican to have done the opposite.

Not so, however.

While all of the Republicans across North Florida, Central Florida, and Southwest Florida handily rejected this measure - along with a large majority of Republicans nationwide - South Florida's Republican Congressmen shunned their party and voted for the bill. Those Congressmen are:

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen - District 18
Lincoln Diaz-Balart - District 21
Mario Diaz-Balart - District 25

I applaud these three Congressmen, particularly Ros-Lehtinen, who has a long and distinguished record of fighting for LGBT equality.

And shame on the vast majority of Republicans and conservatives who continue to oppose hate crimes legislation. I can only think that if it were their children who daily faced the risk of physical violence and death - if it were their children who might be beaten to death and left on a fence simply for who they are - they might be able to remove the Bibles from their asses and approach this matter with a bit more common sense and common human decency. What a truly disgusting, pathetic, and remarkably out-of-touch party.