Frankel, Sims welcome hate-crime bill's advancement to full House

HARRISBURG, Oct. 6 – State Reps. Dan Frankel, D-Allegheny, and Brian Sims, D-Phila., welcomed today's House Judiciary Committee vote that sent an inclusive hate-crimes bill (H.B. 177) to the full House of Representatives.

"This is a positive first step in restoring protections for LGBT people, as well as people targeted because of their gender, ancestry or mental or physical disability. I am pleased that the committee vote was so bipartisan – 19-4 – and I believe the bill would receive similar wide, bipartisan support if there is a vote in the full House, as there should be," said Frankel, co-chair of the LGBT Equality Caucus and House Democratic Caucus chairman.

Sims, the first person elected to the House as an out gay candidate, said, "This bill would correct the injustice done when the state Supreme Court struck these protections from Pennsylvania's hate-crimes law in 2008 not on the merits, but on a technicality. Calls, emails, letters and visits from constituents to their state legislators have been crucial in helping this bill advance this far. I thank urban, suburban and rural Pennsylvanians for making a difference by speaking up – now let's push for a vote by the full House!"

A similar bipartisan bill (S.B. 42) also has been introduced in the Senate.