Washington, DC – "Today’s passage of the Kennedy Hate Crimes bill as part of the Defense Authorization bill sends a chilling message to Christians and traditional families," says Andrea Lafferty, Executive Director of Traditional Values Coalition.

Today’s 232-192 vote in the House was made possible by an alliance of so-called "moderate" Republicans and radical liberals who are pandering to the political agenda of the homosexual movement and their pedophilic allies who have recently attacked Boy Scouts.

"This vote is not about ‘hate,’ says Lafferty. "It is about anti-Christian bigotry and providing federal protection to homosexuals and transvestites under the guise of protecting individuals from so-called ‘gender discrimination.’"

"We are issuing a warning today to those who voted for this legislation: We will notify our 43,000 churches about your vote today and Christians will remember this on election day," says Lafferty.

Traditional Values Coalition has long opposed passage of hate crimes legislation because such laws single out certain politically active groups for special legal protections. No person should be afforded greater legal protections simply because he is given special status by a federal law. Homosexuals will be the primary beneficiaries of this legislation--which will eventually extend to punish so-called "hate speech," or "hate motivated incidents." In effect, this law will be used to criminalize thought--not just speech or actions.

"It is only a matter of time before this law will be used to punish Christian pastors who express opposition to homosexuality as a sinful behavior," said Lafferty. "A sermon preached against sodomy could be considered hate speech."

Traditional Values Coalition is outraged that moderate Republicans caved in to the demands of the radical homosexual movement. "It looks like the radicals have won again--and Christians will now be fair game for anti-religious homosexual bigots."

Traditional Values Coalition is an inter-denominational public policy organization comprising over 43,000 member churches. For more information call Christy Moore at (202) 547-8570. TVC, 139 C Street, SE, Washington, DC 20003. Web address: www.traditionalvalues.org.