For four years, John Goodhart Sr. worked next to Danny Lee Overstreet at Verizon's Roanoke, Va., customer service center. The two members of the Communications Workers of America Local 2204 shared jokes, walked the recent picket lines together and stayed active in their local.

That friendship came to a tragic end Sept. 22, when a gunman entered a Roanoke gay bar and opened fire, killing Overstreet, 43, and wounding six other men and women. The killing was a hate crime, according to police, who said the suspect admitted he was targeting gay people.

But while murderers can target victims because of their sexual orientation, the current federal hate crimes law does not target violent crimes when the victim is attacked because of sexual orientation, gender or disability. In fact, legislation to strengthen the federal hate crimes law is bottled up in Congress by those opposed to expanding the act.

That's why Goodhart and some 300 union members, lesbian and gay activists, and religious, civil rights and community group members gathered Sept. 28 in Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C., for a vigil for Overstreet and a rally in support of the hate crimes legislation.

"We offer a moment of silence to honor the dead," said Goodhart, a member of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. "But it can also symbolize the evil good people do when they are silent. When we are silent, we send a message that we don't care if you kill Danny Lee Overstreet and wound six others. It is time to call, write or e-mail your representatives and tell them to pass the hate crimes legislation," he said.

The Washington, D.C., rally and others in Arlington, Roanoke and Richmond, Va., were organized by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights' United Against Hate Campaign to spur Congress to strengthen the hate crimes law. The hate crimes bill, known as the Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act, was included in the Department of Defense authorization bill, which is now in a House/Senate conference committee. But House Republican leaders have instructed their conferees to remove the hate crimes provision.

"We are here to mobilize a coalition of conscience to pass the hate crimes bill. Hate crimes are a national tragedy, not a partisan issue," said LCCR Executive Director Wade Henderson.

He encouraged each participant to call House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and their own lawmakers to urge them to retain the hate crimes provision in the bill.

Sen. Chuck Robb (D-Va.) asked how—with the recent violent deaths of Overstreet, Matthew Shepard in Wyoming and James Byrd in Texas, "names we've become all too familiar with for all the wrong reasons—how can anyone be less than supportive of hate crime legislation?"

CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen said that employers should join the gay and lesbian groups, religious and civil rights organizations and unions in fighting for tougher hate crimes laws.

"They should support and lobby for this legislation the same way they lobby hard every day to increase their profits," he said.

Some on Capitol Hill argue that there is no special need to expand hate crimes laws. But Richard Womack, director of the AFL-CIO Civil and Human Rights Department, noted that "hate crimes are very different from other crimes....There is a special evil behind them. They send an ugly message to those of us who are lesbian or gay, or people of color or women. The message is that we are not quite human, we have no secure place in the world, we have no safety or dignity."

Before the rally, CWA President Morton Bahr said, "Hate crimes aren't just directed at innocent individuals like Danny Overstreet, but against entire classes of people, and thus whole communities are victimized."

In a Sept. 26 statement, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said that strengthening the current hate crimes laws to include sexual orientation, gender and disability would "send a powerful message that our society simply will not tolerate these horrific crimes."

Contact House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) and tell them that you support the passage of strong hate crime provisions this year.