On October 22,2009, Congress passed the Matthew Shepard/James Byrd, Jr. Act making crimes committed against individuals on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability prosecutable as a federal offense, allowing federal investigators to intervene. Technically, it was only a re-write of a previous "hate crimes" law enacted in 1969 that only protected the first three categories on that list and then only if those people were trying to vote or attend school. With that law, though, one was still able to systematically harass minorities if they weren't voting, or homosexuals, no matter what they were doing, so long as local law enforcement was willing to look the other way.
Considering that the listed categories, with the exception of religion, are generally things that people have no control over, it seems common sense to give some added protection. Oklahoma senator Steve Russell disagrees.