Today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, commended President Barack Obama for signing into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a seminal piece of civil rights legislation. Nadler, an original co-sponsor of the bill and a longtime champion of hate crimes legislation, attended today’s signing ceremony with President Obama in the White House.

“I am thrilled that President Obama has signed the Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law,” said Nadler. “This legislation is an essential recognition of the civil rights of victims of hate crimes and of the necessity for a robust law enforcement response to those crimes. In Congress, we debated for far too long whether this nation should take a stand against the scourge of hate crimes, and I am still amazed that this was such a controversial notion. Both James Byrd Jr. and Matthew Shepard were murdered 11 years ago – Byrd simply because he was African-American, Shepard for being gay. That anyone could be singled out for a crime of violence because of his or her actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability is simply disgusting, and entirely contrary to the core values of our nation.

“Congress and our President have passed a crucial historic test – would we act decisively to confront one of the most destructive crimes in our society. This historic law, at long last, fills the gap in federal policy which excluded LGBT Americans and others from federal hate crime protections, and will provide crucial federal resources to state and local law enforcement officials in order to prevent and prosecute hate crimes in their jurisdictions.”