Anna at Dakota Women has an interesting post on HR 1592, which I gather expands the federal definition of hate crimes to include "sexual orientation and gender identity." Professor Schaff supports a veto not on the merits of the classification, but on the fact that it is a state and not a federal issue. Anna has this:
I have no issue whatsoever with saying that I support including sexual orientation and gender identity in hate crime laws, and I don't care if those laws are on the federal or state level. This Montana judge, sentencing a man who was the ringleader of a group who attacked two men they perceived to be gay, hit the nail on the head regarding why hate crime laws are necessary and harsher punishments are entirely appropriate for bias crimes:
The beatings led police to reach out to Missoula's gay community especially, and Deschamps spoke of the widespread fear precipitated by the assaults.
“You are a direct cause of that feeling,” Deschamps said. “You have hurt a lot more people than just the immediate victim in this case.”
People who commit bias crimes are not just attacking a person. They are attacking a race, a gender, a sexual orientation, or a gender identity. So far as I know, beatings and murders aren't protected by the First Amendment.
I agree with Professor Schaff that this is properly a state issue, but I do not think that that is a sufficient reason for a veto. I agree with Anna that hate crimes laws are a good idea and that it is proper to explicitly include "sexual orientation" in the legal language. The reason is that predators such as the young men who murdered Matthew Shepard tend to believe that gay persons do not enjoy the protection of the community. I think it's a good idea to show them that they are very wrong.
But conservative critics of such laws do have a point. Anna says that "People who commit bias crimes are not just attacking a person. They are attacking a race, a gender, a sexual orientation, or a gender identity." I don't think it is in fact possible to attack a race, gender, or sexual orientation," except in speech, which is protected by the First Amendment. Bigoted psychopaths can only attack persons, individually or collectively. The murder of Matthew Shepard was a crime against that young man, and a crime against the people of Montana. We don't need to create a new class of victims based on diverse identities in order to come down on those monsters like a ton of bricks.
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