Evangelical activists are lobbying Congress to remove LGBT+ language from the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act, a bill that would make lynchings a federal hate crime for the first time. The bill currently covers crimes motivated by hatred and targeted on the basis of “race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”
Mat Staver, president of anti-LGBT+ hate group The Liberty Counsel, characterizes the law as a slippery slope to further LGBT+ protections.
“They’ve been unsuccessful over the many years in the past… but this is a way to slip it in under a so-called anti-lynching bill, and to then to sort of circle the wagon and then go for the juggler [sic] at some time in the future.”
In a rare event, the bill was passed unanimously in the Senate in late December. It is unclear when the House will vote on the legislation.
Read more at PinkNews.