Bipolar disorder, which used to be called manic depressive illness or manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by wide mood swings from high (manic) to low (depressed). Periods of high or irritable mood are called manic episodes.
James Byrd, Jr. was not engaged in a federally-protected activity when he was lynched and killed. The Matthew Shepard Act expanded the 1969 Federal Hate Crime Law to cover these and other types of brutal murders.
Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which expanded the protections of the Civil Rights Act to include gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability.9 In addition to federal law, nearly every state has enacted some type of hate crime law. Washington and Oregon were the first states to pass hate crime legislation in 1981.10 To date, only five states have failed to enact any type of hate crime law: Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina, and Wyoming.11 State laws, however,