Let’s celebrate when President Obama signs the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act (MSHCPA). He will be the first president in history to sign a congressionally enacted federal law that actually does something to advance GLBT equality.

Last week, the Senate approved legislation that would expand federal involvement in investigating hate crimes. By a 63-28 vote on Thursday, the measure was attached to the defense authorization bill, considered “must-pass” legislation by the Senate. Five Republicans joined every Democrat present to vote in favor.

MSHCPA would permit greater federal involvement in investigating hate crimes and expand the federal definition of such crimes to include those motivated by gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability. The law will allow federal authorities to pursue hate crimes cases when local authorities are either unable or unwilling to do so.

The House passed the bill in April, and President Obama said he would sign it. Previously, the bill had passed both houses of Congress, but had not survived the conference committee process.

A number of gay and Jewish groups, headed by the Anti-Defamation League, have been working for a decade to enact the measure.

When President Obama signs this bill, it will take effect immediately. The Department of Justice Office of Civil Rights will have jurisdiction to investigate hate crimes that involve some instrumentality of interstate commerce. In other words, the crime must occur, like the one against Matthew Shepard, on a public roadway or through the use of an instrumentality of interstate commerce, such as the Internet.

Hate crimes can range from physical battery to murder to anti-gay slurs.

Sen. John McCain opposed voting on the measure, arguing that such a “volatile” piece of legislation should not have been attached to a military appropriations bill.”

Others opposing the bill argued that it gives “special” rights to gays. University of San Diego law professor, Gail Heriot, a Bush appointee to the United States Civil Rights Commission, testified in that capacity against the bill in the Senate Judiciary Committee just a few weeks ago.

Her claim was that the law could lead to “double jeopardy” for those acquitted in state court of hate crimes, who would then also be subject to federal jurisdiction. This, of course, is a possibility whenever federal and state laws intersect; however, federal and state prosecutors almost always agree where a matter belongs. Besides, many reported hate crimes involve juveniles. Federal courts don’t have juvenile courts and defer juvenile prosecutions to state courts.

Heriot testified in a private capacity against a similar bill in the ’90s, arguing that it was illegal because it violated the First Amendment and didn’t involve interstate commerce. The Supreme Court rejected the first argument, and the authors cured the bill so that the crime involved would have to affect interstate commerce.

But the real reason these conservatives oppose the bill is because it actually will help to prevent hate crimes against gays.

I spoke with an official with the Justice Department last week, advocating that the Office of Civil Rights should enforce the law in public schools, where hate crimes abound and where local officials, including schools officials, often fail to act.

Enforcing the MSHCPA in schools is particularly important, because while it seems clear to many that current federal law banning “gender discrimination” in our schools applies to anti-gay and anti-trans bias, some schools districts disagree, holding out hope that the Supreme Court will eventually interpret the law in a restrictive way. Not surprisingly, these districts are often within states without hate crimes laws. And, even though hate crimes against children constitute child abuse, school officials don’t seem obliged to report them as such. Further, some local prosecutors are fine with that. Meanwhile, gay and lesbian students – and those perceived to be – suffer.

After Obama signs MSHCPA, the Justice Department will encourage anyone suffering anti-gay or anti-trans abuse to report incidents. Since the threat of a civil lawsuit has hardly served as motivation to take action against known anti-gay bashing in our schools, perhaps the threat of a stint in federal prison will.