With all the opposition coming from Republicans, the Texas House on Monday gave tentative approval, 87-60, to a bill to strengthen punishment for crimes motivated by hate or prejudice. The measure's fate remained uncertain in the Senate, where similar legislation died two years ago in a partisan fight over a provision giving specific protections to homosexuals.
Similar language is in the current bill, and it once again was prominent in the debate.
But one Republican lawmaker who spoke against the bill said that it would divide rather than unite Texans and would discourage free speech. Despite the highly charged emotions, the two-hour debate was mostly polite. Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, the Senate sponsor, later said that he agreed with Thompson's characterization. And it is named in memory of James Byrd Jr., the black man dragged to death behind a pickup by three white men in East Texas in 1998. But the provision offering protections for gays and lesbians doomed the bill two years ago, when then-Gov.