and what was the point of the matthew shepard act. did you i know we haven't talked about it yet, but anybody you just know offhand, no. okay. never mind. so the idea was we want this to be a offense. we have hate crimes. we don't want that to be left as to local enforcement. we want this to be, you know, a federal thing. so this minister is saying, don't muzzle our pulpit. so we oppose the matthew shepard act. this is misguided added compassion and so on. when we see all these other black ministers who who support this. so, so and much of the argument was this is not african this is not something that the african should take pride in. this is something that has sort of come out of the whole you know, slavery experience and so forth and so part of black pride should be rejecting this. so it's it's not only as a as a sin by many fundamentalist ministers, but in this case, there's a whole racial component to it as well. okay. so therefore, i think it's significant that. yes, georgia, just to clarify, the matthew shepard act was the chur

and what was the point of the matthew shepard act. did you i know we haven't talked about it yet, but anybody you just know offhand, no. okay. never mind. so the idea was we want this to be a offense. we have hate crimes. we don't want that to be left as to local enforcement. we want this to be, you know, a federal thing. so this minister is saying, don't muzzle our pulpit. so we oppose the matthew shepard act. this is misguided added compassion and so on. when we see all these other black ministers who who support this. so, so and much of the argument was this is not african this is not something that the african should take pride in. this is something that has sort of come out of the whole you know, slavery experience and so forth and so part of black pride should be rejecting this. so it's it's not only as a as a sin by many fundamentalist ministers, but in this case, there's a whole racial component to it as well. okay. so therefore, i think it's significant that. yes, georgia, just to clarify, the matthew shepard act was the chur

years, you've been working to disrupt and prosecute hate crimes through the enforcement of the matthew shepard and james byrd jr hate crimes prevention act. you fought and you continue to fight for same sex marriage, including the government's amicus brief in obergefell v hodges, in which the supreme court that the constitution guarantees all people equal dignity in the eyes the law. i saw hard work in action. obergefell was just one example when i served as head of the civil rights division. i remember that my very first meeting in october of 2014 was with the team investigating, the ferguson police department, some of members are here today and have returned to the justice department. events in ferguson had deeply fractured our nation and renewed a national dialog over public safety, justice and police community trust and the civil rights division recognized the importance of this investigation to the nation. they worked assiduously. the team members to uncover the full scope of the problems in the small missouri city. the ferguson investigation and report made headlines for a system pervade