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'Get Out the Gay Vote' Web Site
Launched by Gill Foundation

Hate Crime Bill Still Possible�National Call-in-Day is Today

George W. Bush Tried to Strike Gays from Texas Hate Crime Bill

By John Aravosis
The List�Wired Strategies

OutVote2000.Org

The Gill Foundation has launched a new Web site to help get out the LGBT vote this November 7. The site, OutVote2000.org www.OutVote2000.org includes a rather moving introduction, a ton of gay-oriented voting resources, links to information on candidates, issues, voter registration, take a presidential poll, and most important of all, you can sign up yourself and your friends to be reminded to vote. Please

check it out, it's a cool and very important site--1 in 2 people don't vote, and a lot of them are probably our friends. And check out the bulletin board too--I've been by several times today, and it's getting interesting.

Hate Crime Bill Still a Possibility

The civil rights community is still pushing for Congress to pass the hate crime bill this session. Congress has perhaps another week to go before they're done for the year. The groups are asking that everyone make Thursday October 19, a national call-in day to Congress. You can find more information on this at HateCrime.org: www.hatecrime.org/subpages/uah_alert.html

Bush Tried to Strike Gays from Hate Crime Bill

According to a story in this week's Salon magazine, a few years back, Texas Governor George W. Bush contacted the family of James Byrd., Jr. (the African-American man who was brutally dragged to his death a few years ago in Texas), and asked them to agree to drop sexual orientation from a hate crime bill being considered before the state.

The Byrd family, to its very great credit, told the Governor to take a hike. The bill never became law.

Since last week's debate, when Gore nailed Bush on his opposition to the law, Bush has been trying to rewrite history by saying Texas already has a hate crime law. Yes it does. But that law is so vague as to be considered impotent.

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Related Sites:
Out Vote 2000

Salon

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That's why the family of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd implored Bush to support the new law--and the compassionate conservative said sure, so long as they dropped the homos.

So, in fact, that would mean that Bush has no principled objection to such laws, he just didn't want it to cover gays. Lovely.

There's an entire archive about Bush and the hate crime bill at HateCrime.org --just start at the home page, left hand column.

You also might want to check out this wonderful soundbite from last week's debate where Bush said he opposes "special rights" for homosexuals. You can watch a clip of that gem here: www.seanpatricklive.com/hatempeg/specialrights.mpg

Salon story about Bush trying to strike gays from the hate crime bill: www.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/10/16/byrds/print.html