The pro-gay legislation is moving up the California pipeline. Last week, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger quietly signed the California Insurance Equality Act, which prohibits insurance from discriminating against domestic partners. Wednesday, he signed the Omnibus Hate Crimes Act into law. This law includes crimes against individuals based on sexual orientation or gender identity in the category of hate crimes. Meanwhile, there is a move to grant some nationwide protection. 356Gay.com reports:
Schwarzenegger’s signing of the bill comes as the United States House of Representatives takes up the Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act which if passed would for the first time include hate crimes against gays and lesbians.
Attention to hate crime seems particularly well timed, in light of Jimmy Swaggart’s recent “jokes” about killing gays who might look at him the wrong way.
Volokh has quite a bit about this statement; the article I link to has four or five articles about disclaiming false members of a group, Swaggart’s “apology” and the like.
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2004_09_21.shtml#1095887652