U.S. House backs hate crime measure protecting gays

Reuters ^ | 9-14-2005 | Joanne Kenen

[snarkytart]

"This time the hate crime measure was attached to a bipartisan bill known as the Children's Safety Act aimed at tightening reporting requirements for child sex offenders"

LOL...now THAT is ironic!

[fieldmarshaldj]

EVERY hate-crime law is fascist and should be struck from the books.

[AuH2ORepublican]

"I've always thought that Mike Castle's personal life was an open secret in Delaware. I've seen that mentioned elsewhere."

---

I'd never heard that before. Interesting.

Boy, that House of Representatives cloakroom must have one huge closet.

[RetiredArmy]

When do we get a hate crime and hate speech bill out of the Congress for liberal hate and liberal hate speech against conservative and the president? Right, I know, when pigs fly.

[AuH2ORepublican]

"EVERY hate-crime law is fascist and should be struck from the books."

---

I agree 100%. The First Amendment stands for the proposition that the government can't dictate which viewpoints are correct and which viewpoints are verboten, and hate-crime laws are certainly not viewpoint neutral (if you beat a gay Republican because he's a Republican, you get 10 years in prison, but if you beat the same gay Republican because he's gay, you get 30 years in prison). I've never understood why Scalia shied away from the First-Amendment principles he so eloquently espoused in his majority opinion in RAV v. City of St. Paul when hate-crime-law cases reached the Court.

[little jeremiah]

Thanks for the details.

[WoofDog123]

"The hate crimes amendment would expand existing federal hate crime program to add sexual orientation, gender, gender identity and disability to federal hate crime laws. "

Excatly what would NOT be a hate crime under this law?

[WoofDog123]

"I don't think Bush will sign anything like that.'

Betcha he will, bush signs EVERYTHING that comes across his desk from congress.

[Ciexyz]

btt

[WoofDog123]

"Furthermore, this doesn't abridge your freedom of speech-- assualting or murdering someone is not an allowable form of expression and never has been. If the old law didn't outlaw the Klan, the new one won't stop you from speaking your beliefs either. The bill simply expands the old program to also cover disabilities, gender, gender identity and sexual orientation. No, it won't make church illegal either."

Well this is only because we haven't gotten far enough along to start making speech itself criminal, except in airports. 'incitement of hatred' is one i bet you money we will be hearing about as a major problem needed legislation in the next decade.

[kesg]

I did hear that exchange, and I totally agree with what you said.

[Theodore R.]

Thus far, GWB has vetoed nothing.

[Enchante]

Crimes should be defined by clear facts, as ACTIONS that violate the rights of another person, regardless of what that person's race/gender/nationality/ethnicity/sexual practices may be. When we start making crimes against some but not others "hate crimes" by trying to peer inside someone's brain to determine whether they are said to 'hate' a certain category of people, we have simply expanded the leftist conception of "thought crime"..... Think of the converse: let's say person X commits the same violent act against someone who happens to be a "caucasian heterosexual male".... somehow that's a lesser crime because it doesn't include the thought component of 'hate' for gays, etc.??????? Anyway, until the PC-police start including black-on-white "hate crimes" in their litany it will continue to be obvious that they operate with a highly selective and distorted conception of 'hate'.....

[RockinRight]

Will W sign it?

[RockinRight]

Weird votes on both sides.

Mike Pence votes for it...and Steve Chabot...but Dennis Kucinich and Stephanie Tubbs-Jones against??

Something smells. There has to be something in this bill. Or the water...

[Killborn]

Thank you very much for this info. We now have a plan of action we can use.

[RockinRight]

Perhaps we're being duped by Reuters...

[RockinRight]

That looks a little better...

[Freebird Forever]

Well, look around. People will be asking the same question years from now about people in the US.

There's still hope.

[GOPologist]

Nice picture--nice statement.

If the law is passed, you and I can tell anyone that we dislike some "homo-sapiens."

Many years ago, a politician won especially having told the voters that his opponent was a "homo-sapien." They didn't know the meaning of the word.