On the recordSeptember 25, 2000
last Friday a man named Edward Gay marched into a gay bar, killed a man, and wounded six others. He said he was tired of people making fun of his last name: Gay. No joke. He said he wanted to get rid of faggots. What happened in that gay bar last Friday was the exact equivalent of lynchings, common in the South in the first half of this century. This House never passed an anti-lynching law. And there was no hate crimes in Texas when James Byrd, a black man, was dragged behind a truck to his death. George W. Bush opposed a hate crimes law in Texas. James Byrd gave us all the reasons we ever needed for a Federal hate crimes law. Edward Gay's act of murder against gays is a mandate to pass the hate crimes act now. Bring it to the floor, Mr. Speaker.
Source
govinfo.gov
