October is National LGBT History Month...and so it is exceptionally appropriate that yesterday (Oct. 28th, 2009) a historic event occurred for the queer community:  President Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

The new law, named for Matthew Shepard and James Bird, Jr. (both victims of brutal hate crimes in 1998), is monumental for our community and many others for a number of reasons.  The struggle to get a federal hate crimes law that included sexual orientation and gender taken the tireless efforts, energy and advocacy of countless activists, politicians and community members over the past decade....not the least of which have been the late Senator Ted Kennedy and Judy Shephard, the mother of slain Matthew turned hate crimes and LGBT-rights activist.  This legislation is also landmark, however, because it will for the first time require that the FBI formally track data about hate crimes committed against people of transgender experience in our country---violence that our community has long known as tragic reality through the stories of victims like Brandon Teena & Gwen Araujo...but that have been woefully under-addressed by a federal criminal justice system that failed to recognize their reality.

The passage of this legislation should speak to us not only as a community, but as individuals.  As a queer man, I remember October of 1998 when Matthew, only two years younger than myself, was killed.  I had been out of the closet for just over two years...and I can remember vividly how this act of violence impacted me.  I remember the communal sense of outrage and loss.  I remember how, even though it happened halfway across the country to someone I had never met, it undermined my own personal sense of safety and belonging. I remember how the story impacted my own mother.

Many critics, both outside the LGBT community and within it, have argued that this legislation will have little impact in deterring hate...or that ALL violent crimes are crimes of hate and so legislation like this is meaningless or unnecessary.  From where I sit at this moment, however, I feel quite differently---protecting the members of our community against hatred and violence is absolutely a part of keeping our community healthy...and that's what this site, and this blog, are all about. 

So in the wake of the passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act I know that I feel just a little bit HEALTHIER!  How about you??