New laws protect more people against hate crimes
The United Sates will finally expand hate crime law to include crimes against those based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. It also would make it a federal crime to attack U.S. military personnel because of their service.
In the past, I felt there was no need for a law that would protect someone based on their sexual orientation. If someone was beaten, why couldn’t they just press assault charges? If they were murdered, why not murder charges? Why do we need all these special laws?
I believed it was that simple to end hate crimes by regular laws. But I was ignorant of hate in people’s hearts.
My view changed in 2002. I watched the Laramie Project, a film that documented members of New York’s Tectonic Theater Project. They went to Laramie, Wyoming, after the murder of Matthew Shepard. This film is based on interviews conducted in Laramie. It follows and, in some cases, re-enacts the chronology of Shepherd’s visit to the local bar. It also shows the vigil at the hospital, his death and funeral, along with the trail of his killers. The mixing of real news reports, along with the acting, stirred up so much anger in me, I had to rethink my position.
This measure is named for Matthew Shepard, and for James Byrd Jr., an African American in Texas who was chained to a pickup and dragged to death the same year. I cannot believe the United States did not pass this law then. It makes me sick to my stomach that crimes based on this type of deep hatred can happen still today, and that people are so full of hate, they can hurt others just because they’re different.
What does “civilized” actually mean to these Americans that foster this hate?
What makes me mad is that it took this long after the original Hate Crimes Law was enacted after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. This law centered on crimes based on race, color, religion or national origin. Four decades later, it includes this language which prohibits assaults based on a person’s race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or mental or physical disability. Why did we wait so long?
Conservatives argue that this expansion creates a special class of victims. I am glad I have come out of that mentality.
There were 7,624 hate-crime incidents in 2007, almost 17 percent of which were based on sexual orientation, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. All I can think is ‘why?’ Why in a world full of all these advances does this still happen?
