As you will see from this guidance, there are two events relevant to HRC.
· At 2:30 p.m. Rose Garden ceremony, the President will sign the 2010 Defense Authorization Act, which is the legislation containing the hate crimes amendment. This event is open to the press. Defense Secretary Gates will be at this signing, which indicates to me that this event may largely be about the defense portions of the legislation – although, hate crimes will likely be mentioned. We have yet to confirm with any cable networks regarding live coverage. As soon as we get confirmation, we will make sure to pass that info along.
· At 6:05 pm in the East Room of the White House, the President will offer remarks at a reception commemorating the enactment of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. This event is also open press. As with the Rose Garden ceremony, once we get confirmation of any cable networks covering we will pass it along.
Congrats to all of us on this historic day in our movement’s history!!
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_______________________________________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 27, 2009
DAILY GUIDANCE AND PRESS SCHEDULE FOR
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2009
In the morning, the President and the Vice President will receive the Presidential Daily Briefing and the Economic Daily Briefing in the Oval Office. These meetings are closed press. The President will then deliver remarks at the Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony in honor of former Senator Edward William Brooke at the U.S. Capitol. This event is open press.
In the afternoon, the President and the Vice President will have lunch in the Private Dining Room. This lunch is closed press. The President will then host a meeting with the co-chairmen of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB) and the senior leadership of the intelligence community in the Cabinet Room. There will be a pool spray at the top of the meeting where he will introduce the co-chairmen of the PIAB. The Vice President will also attend this meeting.
Later, the President will sign the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 in the Rose Garden. He will deliver brief remarks and will be joined by the Vice President, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Members of Congress, and others. This event is open press. The President and the Vice President will then meet with Secretary Gates in the Oval Office. The President will also meet with senior advisors in the Oval Office. These meetings are closed press.
In the evening, the President will attend a commemorative tree planting on the North Portico. There will be a pool spray of the planting. The President will later host a reception commemorating the enactment of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in the East Room. He will deliver brief remarks and will be joined by Attorney General Eric Holder, civil rights community leaders and others. This event is open press.
Also tomorrow, Energy Secretary Steven Chu will host a Clean Energy Economy Forum with stakeholders from around the country at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Carol Browner and other top Administration officials will also be featured speakers at the forum, which will include a focus on science, innovation, and job creation in the emerging clean energy economy. The forum will be webcast live at www.whitehouse.gov/live and will be opened up even further to the public through Facebook, where an innovative White House application will allow the public to watch and discuss the event live. The White House will be monitoring the chat, taking questions, and incorporating feedback from chat participants during the event. The event is open press; pre-set is 8:45AM and final gather is at 9:15AM at the stakeout location outside the West Wing.
In-Town Travel Pool
Wires: AP, Reuters, Bloomberg
Wire Photos: AP, Reuters, AFP
TV Corr & Crew: ABC
Print: St. Petersburg Times
Radio: NPR
Travel Photo: TIME
EDT
9:00AM Pool Call Time
9:30AM THE PRESIDENT and THE VICE PRESIDENT receive the Presidential Daily Briefing
Oval Office
Closed Press
10:00AM THE PRESIDENT and THE VICE PRESIDENT receive the Economic Daily Briefing
Oval Office
Closed Press
11:00AM THE PRESIDENT delivers remarks at the Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony in honor of former Senator Edward William Brooke
U.S. Capitol
Open Press (Travel Pool Gather Time 10:30AM – North Doors of the Palm Room)
12:00PM THE PRESIDENT and THE VICE PRESIDENT have lunch
Private Dining Room
Closed Press
1:20PM THE PRESIDENT and THE VICE PRESIDENT host meeting with the co-chairmen of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board and the senior leadership of the intelligence community
Cabinet Room
Pool spray at the top (Gather Time 1:10PM – Briefing Room)
2:30PM THE PRESIDENT signs the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010
Rose Garden
Open Press (Pre-set 1:30PM – Final Gather 2:00PM – North Doors of the Palm Room)
3:10PM THE PRESIDENT and THE VICE PRESIDENT meet with Secretary of Defense Gates
Oval Office
Closed Press
4:00PM THE PRESIDENT meets with senior advisors
Oval Office
Closed Press
5:30PM THE PRESIDENT attends commemorative tree planting
North Portico
Pool spray (Gather Time 5:15PM – North Doors of the Palm Room)
6:05PM THE PRESIDENT delivers remarks at reception commemorating the enactment of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act
East Room
Open Press (Pre-set 4:45PM – Final Gather 5:30PM – North Doors of the Palm Room)
Briefing Schedule
12:00PM Briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs
##
Two years after son's death, mother finds solace in hate crimes bill
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Elke Kennedy says her son was called a "fa**ot" and then punched -- he died after assault
For the past 27 months, she's been tirelessly lobbying for hate crime legislation
She will attend President Obama's signing ceremony on Wednesday
Several groups concerned law could be used to criminalize conservative speech
(CNN) -- For Elke Kennedy, the significance of Wednesday's hate crimes legislation can be traced to a single punch outside a bar on a drunken night two years ago.
"My son was murdered as he was leaving a bar in Greenville, South Carolina," the 48-year-old woman told CNN about her son, Sean, who was 20 when he came face-to-face with what she calls a hate crime. "He walked outside the bar and there was three people sitting in a car outside and they called him over to ask him for a cigarette."
It was 3:45 a.m. on May 16, 2007, and her underage son was legally drunk, but not so much that he couldn't give them the cigarette. He did so, then turned to walk away. He did not get far, she said.
"As he was walking away, the guy in the back seat got out and walked over to Sean and called him a faggot and punched him in the face."
The men got back into their car and drove off, leaving Sean on the ground, his brain separated from his brain stem, she said.
Fifteen minutes later, the 18-year-old assailant called one of the women whom Sean had been with in the bar and left a message on her cell phone.
"You tell your fa**ot friend when he wakes up he owes me 500 dollars for my broken hand," the message said.
Sean was taken to Greenville Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced brain dead 17 hours later. More than 700 people showed up at his memorial service at Crossroads Community Church in nearby Simpsonville.
Two days later, Stephen Andrew Moller, then 18, was charged with murder.
He bargained it down to involuntary manslaughter and served 199 days in the county lockup followed by 12 months in prison, Kennedy said. Moller was released on probation last July, she said.
An attempt to reach the Moller family Tuesday was not successful.
Had hate crimes been a federal offense in 2007, the FBI would have been able to investigate the attack, and Sean Kennedy's killer might still be in prison, his mother said.
For the past 27 months, Kennedy has logged 76,000 miles speaking at colleges and clubs across the country trying to raise awareness and gather support for the legislation.
Last week, the Senate did what she was seeking when it passed legislation by 68-29 that would make it a federal crime to assault an individual because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity.
Obama is to sign the measure, which was added to a $680 billion defense authorization bill, on Wednesday. Kennedy and her husband were driving Tuesday night from their home in Greenville to the nation's capital, where they were planning to witness the ceremony.
"We are going there representing so many people," she said. "People who have been murdered and are dealing with the harassment and bullying and violence on a daily basis."
But Kennedy said her work does not end with the president's signature.
"This is a huge milestone, but it is not the end of the fight," she said. "We have to change the hearts and minds."
Toward that end, she has spoken at 34 colleges and universities "to educate these kids about what hate and violence and bullying can do and give them options and teach them non-violent conflict resolution."
But she expressed frustration that elementary schools have not allowed her to address their students, to send them the message that ends each of her talks: "No mother should ever have to bury her child, no mother should ever have to lose her child to hate or violence and no mother should ever have to fight for justice for her child."
The measure is named for Matthew Shepard, a gay Wyoming teenager who died after being kidnapped and severely beaten in October 1998, and James Byrd Jr., an African-American man dragged to his death in Texas the same year.
Several religious groups have expressed concern that a hate-crimes law could be used to criminalize conservative speech relating to subjects such as abortion or homosexuality.
But Attorney General Eric Holder has said that any federal hate-crimes law would be used only to prosecute violent acts based on bias, as opposed to the prosecution of speech based on controversial racial or religious beliefs.
Former President George W. Bush had threatened to veto a similar measure. Opponents of the expanded hate crimes bill challenged the need to specify one particular community in federal legislation. They contended that existing federal hate-crimes laws were sufficient to protect the rights of people based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
More than 77,000 hate crime incidents were reported by the FBI between 1998 and 2007, or "nearly one hate crime for every hour of every day over the span of a decade," Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee in June.
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