Unlike race, gender, age, ethnicity or religion, sexual orientation is not a protected characteristic under current federal civil rights law. But following the 1969 Stonewall riots of gays in Greenwich Village, a key goal of the gay and lesbian political movement has been to win civil rights protection against discrimination in employment, housing, and elsewhere. Too often, gay men and lesbians face hostility, discrimination -- and sometimes deadly violence -- solely because of their sexual orientation.

Hate crimes committed against gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and/or transgendered individuals constitute the third-highest category of hate crimes reported to the FBI -- 14% of all hate crimes reported nationally, according to the Human Rights Campaign. And while violent crime rates have been declining generally, the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs reports that the number of actual or suspected anti-gay murders is on the rise: from 14 in 1997 to 33 in 1998 and 28 in 1999.