As www.cnn.com informs, on Wednesday, October 28, US President Barack Obama signed The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law. Ten years of debate over the inclusion of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression in federal hate crimes legislation ended with it.

The new legislation along with gender, sexual orientation and gender identity also includes disability as a base for such crimes for the first time.

According to the statistic data, of the 7, 624 hate crimes in USA in 2007, more than half were racially motivated and 17% because of sexual orientation.

The 2008 hate crimes statistics are not published yet, but those for the early years you can find on the official website of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), here: www.FBI.gov and also on: www.gaylife.about.com.