The official title of a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on May 3 is “Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act,” but everyone knows that it would make it a federal crime to assault a homosexual. That accounts for its importance, but also for a bitter campaign against it, as well as for President Bush’s threat to veto it if the Senate passes an identical companion bill.

The Senate bill is titled, more forthrightly, “The Matthew Shepard Act,” referring to the young Wyoming gay man whose murder in 1998 was chronicled in the stage play “The Laramie Project.”

The legislation has strong bipartisan support, although probably not the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto. The House passed it 237-180. Maine’s two House members, Reps. Tom Allen and Mike Michaud, both Democrats, voted for it. The Senate bill, introduced by Sens. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Gordon Smith, R-Ore., has 43 co-sponsors, including Maine’s Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins.

Supporters cite an FBI report that 25 Americans each day are victims of hate crimes, and that four of those crimes are motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation. The pending legislation also would provide federal resources to state and local law enforcement agencies to help them investigate and prosecute gender-based violence.

The bill has aroused vehement opposition among conservatives. Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition, called it an “anti-Christian hate crimes bill” and urged a presidential veto. She said the bill would make it illegal for Christians to “publicly express the dictates of their religious beliefs.”

Of course, the bill does no such thing. It forbids violent physical attacks, not thoughts or speech, no matter how violent or extreme. Dr. James C. Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, made a similar charge. According to the Associated Press, he said on his radio program that the bill’s real purpose was “to muzzle people of faith who dare to express their moral and biblical concerns about homosexuality.”

A White House statement, strongly hinting at a veto, argued that existing state and local criminal laws made a federal law unnecessary and that the bill would give homosexuals “special status.”

Politics obviously is in play. Democrats know that perhaps 10 percent of the electorate are gay. But the Bush administration knows that the religious right expects a veto.