And now, your editor takes a small political diversion from our usual arts and culture content.

Today, President Obama is poised to sign into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which will add sexual orientation and gender identity classes to existing federal hate-crimes legislation. The law, which has been a long time coming — it was first introduced in 2001 — will increase penalties for crimes committed specifically because the victim was in the LGBT spectrum (along with some other new categories).

And it’s a milestone because, for the first time, the U.S. federal government has put into law a measure that supports the LGBT community, rather than stigmatizes it (Defense of Marriage or Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, anyone?).