{"id":3347,"date":"2007-05-04T05:53:52","date_gmt":"2007-05-04T13:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2007\/05\/04\/bush-threatens-to-veto-hate-crimes-legislation-and-dont-worry-youre-still-free-to-be-a-bigot\/"},"modified":"2007-05-04T05:53:52","modified_gmt":"2007-05-04T13:13:40","slug":"bush-threatens-to-veto-hate-crimes-legislation-and-dont-worry-youre-still-free-to-be-a-bigot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=3347","title":{"rendered":"Bush Threatens to Veto Hate Crimes Legislation (And Don't Worry You're Still Free to Be A Bigot)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The House of Representatives voted to extend hate crimes protections those who are the victims of crimes motivated by gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation.\u00a0 Here’s a quote from the New York Times<\/a>:<\/p>\n

By 237 to 180, the House voted to include crimes spurred by a victim\u2019s \u201cgender, sexual orientation or gender identity\u201d under the hate-crime designation, which now applies to crimes spurred by the victim\u2019s race, religion, color or national origin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bill is passed,\u201d Representative Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who is gay, announced to applause, most of it from Democrats.<\/p>\n

Similar legislation is moving through the Senate. But even assuming that a bill emerges from the full Congress, it will face a veto by President Bush on grounds that it is \u201cunnecessary and constitutionally questionable,\u201d the White House said before the House vote.<\/p>\n

The House did not pass the bill by a margin wide enough to override a veto, which requires a two-thirds majority. The Senate is not expected to do so either.<\/p>\n

Debate over the legislation has been spirited, and while some of it has addressed whether the bill is really necessary, the arguments have also been colored by issues of conscience and notions of personal morality.<\/p>\n

Representative Steny Hoyer<\/font><\/a> of Maryland, the Democratic majority leader, said the House vote represented \u201ca statement of what America is, a society that understands that we accept differences.\u201d Civil rights groups have long urged that people who are attacked because of their sexuality be given additional protections.<\/p>\n

But Dr. James C. Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, a conservative lobbying group, told listeners to his radio program that the bill\u2019s real purpose was \u201cto muzzle people of faith who dare to express their moral and biblical concerns about homosexuality,\u201d according to The Associated Press.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have no idea what these conservative lobbying groups and right wing Christian activists are talking about.\u00a0For example, I found this site<\/a>, which makes the following claims.<\/p>\n

Today, conservative groups and lawmakers warned that the measure undermines freedom of speech.<\/p>\n

They say it could lead to arrests of Christians who speak out against homosexuality.<\/p>\n

Conservatives also say the bill would make homosexuals more important than other Americans — because crimes against them would have harsher penalties than crimes against others.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well folks this is false (I thought lying was in the 10 Commandments.), and it reflects a basic misunderstanding of hate crimes legislation.\u00a0 Hate crimes legislation does not curtail freedom of speech, so if the conservative Christian activists want to have public protests denigrating women, gays, lesbians, and transgender people, they can do so.\u00a0 However, if they commit a crime in the process of\u00a0their “protest” and that crime is motivated by bigotry, they could get a harsher sentence.\u00a0 But they have to commit a crime.\u00a0 So they can say God hates women and gays all day long, but if they decide to go and beat up a women\/gay man\/lesbian\/transgender person while yelling I hate bitches, fags, and dykes.\u00a0 The prosecutor will now have the option to take on a hate crimes charge to the assault.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is also ridiculous to assume that this makes “homosexuals have more rights than others.”\u00a0 Why?\u00a0\u00a0Because the legislation targets\u00a0all crimes motivated by\u00a0gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation.\u00a0\u00a0Crimes against heterosexuals (and men), however rare they are, would also be covered.\u00a0 The identity of the perpetrator is also irrelevant.\u00a0\u00a0LGBT folks\u00a0could commite hate crimes against\u00a0other LGBT folks and be prosecuted for hate crimes, and the same could be said for men and heterosexuals.<\/p>\n

What matters is the motivation of a crime.\u00a0 People will still be entitled to believe hateful things, but if they commit crimes motivated by bias, then they will have a harsher penalty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The House of Representatives voted to extend hate crimes protections those who are the victims of crimes motivated by gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation.\u00a0 Here’s a quote from the New York Times: By 237 to 180, the House voted … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,27,31,91,115,49,90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservative-zaniness-right-wingers-etc","category-elections-and-politics","category-feminism-sexism-etc","category-free-speech-censorship-copyright-law-etc","category-homophobic-zaninessmore-lgbtq-issues","category-lesbian-gay-bi-trans-and-queer-issues","category-transsexual-and-transgender-related-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3347\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}