Last Thursday, the Senate passed a bill that will make assaulting someone based on their sexual orientation or gender identity a federal crime. When Obama signs the bill, he will finally begin making good on his promise to ensure equal rights for gays and lesbians and his promise to the American people as a whole for change.

The bill, officially known as the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act, expands the scope of the 1969 federal hate-crime law, which currently characterizes hate crimes as crimes based on race, religion, national origin and color. The bill gets its name from the victims of two nationally publicized hate crimes: Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, died after being tortured because of his sexual orientation, and three white Texas men lynched James Byrd, who was African-American.

Other than expanding the federal hate-crime law, the bill also removes the prerequisite that the attacked person must be engaging in a federally-protected activity, giving federal authorities more power to pursue hate crimes investigations and provides funding to help states investigate and prosecute hate crimes and requires the FBI to keep statistics on hate crimes against transgendered individuals.

The senseless murder of any innocent person is a horrible tragedy, but when attackers target someone because of specific, unchangeable traits, the crime becomes even more terrible in my eyes. As I mentioned in a previous article, hate crimes are still a problem in the U.S. and have the power to divide people of different groups, fostering even more hatred and misunderstanding.

Adding attacks based on sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of federally prosecuted hate crimes is a big step in the right direction. Even though it is becoming more common for people with alternative lifestyles to publicly come out, homophobia is still a problem in several parts of the U.S. It is important to protect non-heterosexuals from any hate-based violence they might encounter and prove that our country takes crimes against them seriously.

Opponents of the bill worry it could be used to criminalize conservative speech that condemns homosexuality. This concern seems to overlook the First Amendment, which protects free speech, even hate speech. Hate speech does not equal hate-based violence so conservatives should rest assured: They can still safely criticize ways of life without punishment.

When Obama signs the bill into law, he will be doing more than fulfilling a campaign promise; he will finally begin using his power as president to make meaningful social change. Though Obama may not be able to unite his party on economics and health care, social issues are probably less divisive as far as Democrats are concerned so he should use the Democratic majority in Congress to his advantage while he still can.

Also, Obama will actually start keeping his promises to the gay community. Many people hoped Obama would expand gay rights dramatically, but so far that hasn't been the case since he put this issue on the backburner in favor of health care. Obviously, this made proponents of gay rights doubt he would really stand up for the cause, but expanding the hate-crime law signals Obama still remembers his promises and will act on them.

Signing the Matthew Shepard Act not only protects minorities from hate crimes; it also honors those whose lives were lost as a result of hate-based violence and shows Obama's commitment to the extension of civil rights.

—Aimee Sobhani is a junior in the College of Arts and Science. She can be reached at aimee.f.sobhani@vanderbilt.edu.