“As an organization concerned about women’s rights and equal opportunity for all Americans, we applaud today’s Senate introduction of the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crime Prevention Act (LLEHCPA) of 2007.  We believe that this legislation would provide badly-needed tools to address and help deter gender-based hate crimes.

The LLEHCPA would provide federal assistance where it is needed most when local authorities are unable or unwilling to prosecute violent crimes driven by the victim’s gender, gender identity or sexual orientation. The law would establish uniform protections against hate crimes motivated by gender bias. This legislation also would require the FBI to collect statistics on gender-based crimes a vital tool to help expose this type of violence.

This legislation sends a strong message that gender-based hate crimes are unacceptable and will not be tolerated. For this reason, more than 35 national women’s organizations joined the National Partnership for Women & Families in sending a letter today to the entire U.S. Senate encouraging support for the LLEHCPA. We urge Congress to make protections from gender-based violence a priority and enact this important measure.”