Huffington Post reports that earlier today 35 Senate Republicans voted against passage of the defense authorization bill because it also contained hate crimes legislation. The defense bill including the hate crimes legislation, was sent on for final vote, and passed today. 

The National Center for Transgender Equality celebrated a hard-won victory:

In an historic move, the United States Senate, by a vote of 68 to 29, joined the House of Representatives in passing The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which will be the first federal law to include gender identity and transgender people. Once signed by the President, this law will add sexual orientation, gender identity, gender and disability to the categories included in existing federal hate crimes law and will allow local governments who are unable or unwilling to address hate crimes to receive assistance from the federal government. President Obama has indicated that he will sign the bill into law.

The earlier vote, however, brought criticism, especially following on the heels of another vote this week in which Republicans rejected a bill that would have forbidden defense contractors from asking employees to sign away their rights in the case of rape of sexual assault.

Senate Harry Reid criticized the actions of Republicans in voting against the hate crimes bill on an important defense authorization act:

"It is outrageous and unacceptable that Senate Republicans would vote against pay raises for our troops, battlefield equipment upgrades and increased funding for veterans' health care as we continue to fight two wars. And they decided to do this all for the sake of stopping passage of landmark legislation that will bring justice to those who commit violent crimes based on bigotry and prejudice. What message does that send to our country and, more importantly, to our troops?"

Indeed, says Jeff Muskus of Huffington Post:

It's not easy to get 35 Republican senators to vote against defense spending -- unless hate crimes legislation is involved.

The Senate narrowly invoked cloture on Thursday, 64 to 35, on the defense authorization package with the bill named for Matthew Shepard attached. The bill, named for a gay Wyoming teenager who was kidnapped and beaten to death in 1998, makes it a federal crime to assault someone on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

 

Senate Republicans, writes Muskus, conceded that the Shepard bill swung their votes against the defense package.

"The bill includes hate crimes legislation, which I firmly believe is unnecessary, irresponsible, and certainly not germane to this bill," Saxby Chambliss of Georgia said. "There is little evidence that indicates that violent crimes motivated by hate go unpunished in the United States. Every single state has come from laws that prohibit the behavior addressed by hate crimes legislation, including laws against rape, assault and battery."

Those are states' rights issues, said Chambliss. "I do not believe the federal government should interfere with the criminal laws already on the books in our states," he said.

Only Sens. Dick Lugar of Indiana, George Voinovich of Ohio and Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine voted with Democrats to move the legislation to a final vote, which is expected Thursday night or Friday.

"I'm disappointed that Senate Republicans have decided that defeating hate crimes legislation takes precedent over supporting our troops," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a statement.

Protecting contractors from rape charges is another area where the Republicans have shown themselves willing to throw victims to the wolves.  Muskus writes:

Thirty Republicans also touched a nerve in a separate defense bill recently, when they voted against an amendment that would deny defense contracts to companies that ask employees, including rape victims, to sign away the right to sue. That time, they were actually joined in some of their concerns by the Department of Defense.

The Shepard bill passed the House two weeks ago, 281 to 146 and President Obama has promised to sign it, a reversal from the policy of the Bush administration.