EDGE Miami

The Matthew Shepard Foundation is among only 25 U.S. charities chosen to compete for grants ranging from $125,000 to $1 million through the American Giving Awards, presented by Chase.

President Obama signed landmark legislation that finally includes sexual orientation as a category of a hate crime into law in the presence of the family of Matthew Shepard, for whom the bill is named.

Physical attacks on people based on their sexual orientation will join the list of federal hate crimes in a major expansion of the civil rights-era law Congress approved Thursday and sent to President Barack Obama.