LOCAL PGN
Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com Dec. 21-27, 2012
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ADL figure visits Philly, talks hate-crimes progress By Angela Thomas angela@epgn.com The Anti-Defamation League hosted a special guest last week in its Philadelphia office. Michael Lieberman serves as ADL’s Washington Counsel and director of the agency’s Civil Rights Policy Planning Center, and played an instrumental role in getting the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act passed. While Lieberman was in the City of Brotherly Love Dec. 14, he sat down with PGN to discuss, among other issues, the passage of the bill and the progress of the LGBT-rights movement. ADL was founded in 1913 for two purposes: to stop the defamation of Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment for all. Lieberman got involved with ADL after learning about the organization through a classmate’s father, who was the Southern Counsel for the agency. “He was somebody who I thought just had a really cool job,” Lieberman said. “I’ve always been very interested in civilrights issues, Jewish community issues, support for the state of Israel and a range of equality issues, and so when I went to
law school, I knew this is what I wanted to do.” Lieberman worked at Capitol Hill for several different members of Congress and started at ADL 30 years ago — a move he said started a “fantastic career path.” He said ADL plays a significant leadership role in a range of equality issues, including LGBT work. “In this city, the ADL is especially known for their ‘No Place For Hate’ programs and anti-bias programs. There are 28 regional offices and every single one of them is committed to trying to make it ‘brotherhood and sisterhood week’ every week,” he said. “Our definition of brotherhood and sisterhood is inclusive.” Lieberman has also served as chair of the Hate Crimes Coalition in Washington, D.C., which worked on the LGBT-inclusive hate-crimes law. It took 13 years to achieve passage of the Matthew Shepard Act. Lieberman said the ongoing veto threat from former President George W. Bush was a significant challenge, and the process was also impeded by two words that were within the legislation: sexual orientation. “We adamantly refused to allow those in Congress that wanted to pass the bill way earlier than 13 years, who had one precondition. They would say to us, ‘All you
have to do is take out two words that recur in the Matthew Shepard Act.’ We were not going to let sexual orientation be pulled out of the Matthew Shepard Act,” he said. Congress eventually passed the legislation in late 2009. The measure was not a stand-alone but was attached to a defensespending bill that was “must-pass” legislation. “The only way to get it done was on this must-pass legislation. That bill is passed every year for the last 50 years and it was courageous for the Democratic House and Senate at the time to put this bill in that must-pass legislation. They took a lot of heat for it,” Lieberman said. “But it was the right thing to do.” Lieberman said the real meaning behind the act was never forgotten. “It is so tragic that the bill is named after people who had to be thought of because they had been murdered because of who they were, so nobody was forgetting that. The fact the bill is named The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act underscores that what we’re talking about is real people and real lives and we don’t forget that,” he said. Lieberman described the moment when President Obama signed the bill into law in October 2009 as “spectacular but somber.”
The day after the bill was signed, Lieberman said work began on implementing it. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Hate Crimes Statistics report released Dec. 10, national LGBTrelated crimes in 2011 stood at a total 1,293. Lieberman said race has always been the most common motivating factor for a hate crime, followed by religion — until this most recent report, when sexual orientation rose from third to second. On Jan. 1, the next stage of the effort will begin — including the tracking of hate crimes motivated by gender identity and other categories incorporated by the Matthew Shepard Act. “I don’t think people who live in cities across the country that work for police forces necessarily know what a gender nonconforming hate crime is,” he said. “It is going to really require a considerable amount of outreach, and not just by cops and organizations, but it is very essential for people in the transgender community to know it is critically important to report these crimes. If an individual is a victim of a crime, they really have to take it seriously and the only way they’re going to make the police take it seriously is to report.” ■