Glossary
Matthew Shepard And James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act
A 2009 U.S. federal law that expanded hate crime protections to cover a victim's actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, gender, and disability.
The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act is a landmark federal law passed by Congress on October 22, 2009, and signed by President Barack Obama on October 28, 2009, attached to that year's National Defense Authorization Act. It expanded the 1968 federal hate crime law, which had covered race, color, religion, and national origin, to also reach crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, gender, or disability. It is named for Matthew Shepard, a gay man murdered in Wyoming in 1998, and James Byrd Jr., a Black man dragged to death in Texas the same year. The law was the first major federal statute to protect LGBTQ people by name and followed more than a decade of advocacy.