HARRISBURG, Pa. — President Biden signed the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act into law Thursday with a great amount of bipartisan support.
364 U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of the bill; of the 364, 217 were democrats and 147 were republican.
President Biden has said the goal of the bill is to stop Asian bias and hatred, a sentiment bringing great meaning to Asian-Americans in our community.
"It's one thing to be like 'oh don't do a hate crime,' but it's another thing to write it down and has that on paper so it just means a lot to me," says Krystal Leung of Hershey."
Leung says after six women were killed in the tragic Atlanta spa shootings this past March, she was scared to even go outside and possibly be seen.
"When the Atlanta shootings had just happened, I felt pretty anxious going out to just walk," said Leung, "I actually made sure to wear my face mask when I went out to walk when I usually wouldn't just because I felt kind of uncomfortable I kind of felt like there was more attention at me."
As Leung hopes the bill will bring more awareness, Asian association officials say it's a start in bringing light to communities who have suffered from inequality.
"Black people something happened, for Asian people, it happened, a lot of cities where Hispanic people are the problem. So everybody is equal, it's the same problem right now," said Richard Choi, president of the Central Pennsylvania Korean Association.
Other community members who identify as minorities say they believe it is important to join in the effort to help groups who feel like they do not have a voice as it brings togetherness.
"One of the good things about this whole moment of racial reckoning is really seeing all of these marginalized communities and knowing there's real power in our voices," said Maryah Burney of Harrisburg "and seeing everyone take a stand against racism, against white supremacy, against social issues that impact everyone in some way even if people aren't directly aware of it."
Congressman Scott Perry for Pennsylvania's 10th congressional district voted against the bill saying it only creates further division.
In a statement the congressman said:
“Every American deserves equal justice and no one deserves any more protection or prosecution than another. while I unequivocally condemn hatred for any reason, we already have laws in America against crimes. crimes are prosecuted here. we don’t need a hyphen in front of every kind of American in order to have justice. segregation of our society and our laws does nothing but further divide us, and my vote today was a vote against further division.”
Democratic State Representative Patty Kim was not shy to point out the congressman not voting to tweet:
"Scott Perry was the only U.S. House Rep in PA to vote NO to the Anti-Asian Hate Crimes Bill. He won by 25,958 in his last election. He has 28,297 Asian-Americans in the district including me."