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(Washington) The House of Representatives passed legislation late Wednesday afternoon to expand federal hate crimes laws to include gays, lesbians and the transgendered.

The measure received bipartisan support, passing on a 233 – 199 vote.

Called the Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act it has passed the Senate in previous congressional sessions only to die in the House.

A Senate version of the bill is currently before the chamber.

This legislation extends existing hate crimes laws that already cover crimes motivated by race, color, national origin and religion to include crimes based on actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, disability and gender identity, including gender-related characteristics. The gender identity/characteristics language was added to this bill this year to make clear that anti-transgender crimes are covered.

The bill would allow the Department of Justice to assist local authorities in investigating and prosecuting cases in which violence occurs.

The bill was filed jointly in May by Reps. Barney Frank (D-MA), IIeana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), John Conyers (D-MI); Christopher Shays (R-CT), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) (story)

Passage in the House drew praise from LGBT rights activists.

“Every American child deserves the strongest protections from some of this country’s most horrifying crimes,” said Judy Shepard, the mother of Matthew Shepard, who was murdered by two men because he was gay, in 1998 in Wyoming. Shepard’s slaying became the impetus for the legislation.

“Never before has the House of Representatives voted to protect transgender people in any way,” said Matt Foreman, Executive Director of the Task Force. “And today marks the first time, outside of procedural motions, that the House has affirmatively voted to extend full hate crimes protections to lesbian, gay and bisexual people. This proves that even in times of adversity for our community, when grassroots voices keep up the pressure on our elected officials, decency can prevail.”

Gay Democrats were equally pleased.

“This legislation will allow the federal government to enhance its law enforcement resources so that it may effectively combat crimes that attempt to terrorize groups of Americans,” said Eric Stern, NSD Executive Director.

Passage of the bill came the same week as the conviction of two men in the slaying of transgendered teen Gwen Araujo. The jury, however, was unable to reach agreement on the sentence for a third defendant in the case. (story)

Last April a report released by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs showed violence against members of the LGBT community is on the rise.

Overall, NCAVP’s report noted a 4% increase in reported incidents of anti-LGBT violence. Such incidents rose from 1,720 in 2003 to 1,792 in 2004.

Included in the rise in incidents for the year, was an 11% increase in anti-LGBT murders, which rose from 18 in 2003 to 20 in 2004. During 2004, the total number of victims rose 4%, from 2,042 in 2003 to 2,131 in 2004.