Talk:Matthew Shepard Act

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An entry from Matthew Shepard Act appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on 8 May 2007.
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[edit] Contradiction?

How can this article make this statement:

"According to FBI statistics, of the over 113,000 hate crimes since 1991, 55% were motivated by racial bias, 17% by religious bias, 14% sexual orientation bias, 14% ethnicity bias, and 1% disability bias."

That is, it already includes sexual orientation in the definition of a hate crime, yet the point of the Act *is* to include it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by JohnJSal (talkcontribs) 20:34, 8 May 2007 (UTC).

The FBI statistics are just that at this point; unenforcable statistics. The Shepard Act would make them enforcable. --CWSensation 21:33, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
That is correct. See Hate Crime Statistics Act, which requires the FBI to track this data. Fireplace 22:21, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] July portion unclear

That paragraph needs more details; it says Kennedy introduced an amendment that would add this bill as a rider to another bill but actually does not state weather it was actually added to the bill. (Introducing an amendment is not enough for the amendment to be added to the bill, it needs to be voted on; either voice vote or recorded.) Also another sentence is partually inaccurate, for instance, another possible outcome is that conference commitees on the underlaying bill could strip the rider from the base bill. (Weather or not the house version of the base bill includes it.) Jon 19:17, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

I think I've fixed these. Fireplace 14:34, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the proposal was Move. Duja 12:22, 15 October 2007 (UTC)


This should be moved to Matthew Shepard Act. It is the most common name. I had never heard this other name until I read this article. A.Z. 08:26, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Hmm. The name of the House bill is "Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007", the name of the Senate bill is "Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007". Google turns up twice as many hits for "Matthew Shepard Act" as "Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007". I don't have a strong opinion either way (maybe we should wait to see what the title is if/when it reaches Bush's desk). Fireplace 20:28, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
I don't think the title when it reaches Bush's desk is that relevant. Often the so-called "official" names of things are different from what people actually call them. Wikipedia's naming conventions are that we should call things by their common name. This is one of Wikipedia's guidelines that I completely agree with. A.Z. 20:41, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.