Feature Story - December 2009
Expanded Hate Crimes Law Stirs Controversy
The amendment was attached to a $680 billion defense authorization bill and named after Matthew Shepard, a Wyoming college student killed in 1998 because he was gay; and James Byrd Jr., a black man dragged to his death that same year behind a pickup truck.
President Obama recently signed into law, a bill that extends federal hate crimes protections to homosexuals, lesbians, transgender and disabled people. The statute adds acts of violence based on sexual orientation to the federal hate crimes statute that Congress initially passed in 1968 following the assassination of civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and which previously protected people from attacks motivated by race, religion or ethnicity.
The measure will provide financial assistance to states prosecuting hate crimes and allow the Justice Department to intervene when a state is unwilling or unable to follow through on a purported hate crime.
Attorney General Eric Holder praised Congress for finalizing the measure.
"This vital legislation is a milestone in helping protect Americans from the most heinous bias-motivated violence. Hate crimes victimize not just individuals, but entire communities. Perpetrators of hate crimes seek to deny the humanity that we all share, regardless of the color of our skin, the God to whom we pray, or whom we love.
There have been nearly 80,000 hate crime incidents reported to the FBI since I first testified before Congress in support of a hate-crimes bill eleven years ago. The passage of this legislation will give the Justice Department and our state and local law enforcement partners the tools we need to deter and prosecute these acts of violence," Holder stated.
President Obama enacted the measure during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House.
"To all the activists, all the organizers, all the people who helped make this day happen, thank you for your years of advocacy and activism, pushing and protesting, that made this victory possible.
This is the culmination of a struggle that has lasted more than a decade. Time and again, we faced opposition. Time and again, the measure was defeated or delayed. Time and again we've been reminded of the difficulty of building a nation in which we're all free to live and love as we sit fit.
You understood that we must stand against crimes that are meant not only to break bones, but to break spirits–not only to inflict harm, but to instill fear. You understand that the rights afforded every citizen under our Constitution mean nothing if we do not protect those rights–both from unjust laws and violent acts.
In the most recent year for which we have data, the FBI reported roughly 7,600 hate crimes in this country. Over the past ten years, there were more than 12,000 reported hate crimes based on sexual orientation alone. And we will never know how many incidents were never reported at all.
Prosecutors will have new tools to work with states in order to prosecute to the fullest, those who would perpetrate such crimes - Because no one in America should ever be afraid to walk down the street holding the hands of the person they love. No one in America should be forced to look over their shoulder because of who they are, or because they live with a disability.
We have for centuries strived to live up to our founding ideal, of a nation where all are free and equal and able to pursue their own version of happiness. Through conflict and tumult, through the morass of hatred and prejudice, through periods of division and discord, we have endured and grown stronger and fairer and freer. And at every turn, we've made progress not only by changing laws, but by changing hearts, by our willingness to walk in another's shoes, by our capacity to love and accept, even in the face of rage and bigotry," the President said.
Some in the faith community hailed the legislation.
Among them, was Wyoming Episcopal Bishop Bruce Caldwell, who presided at Matthew Shepard's funeral.
"I think God was smiling and moving with every stroke of the pen as Obama signed this legislation. I think passage of this legislation gives the country the opportunity to press the pause button to say, enough is enough. No more violence," Caldwell said.
United Church of Christ issued a statement, which read in part, "The UCC's General Synod has been on record since 1989 supporting hate crimes legislation, expressing solidarity and support for the victims of violence, recognizing that the whole community benefits from efforts to reduce violence and calling for all settings of the church to work to end violence.
Violence against persons because of their real or perceived sexual orientation, or because of their gender identity or expression continues to occur in this country," UCC stated.
Likewise, Interfaith Alliance President, Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, said, "Not only will this new law provide much-needed help for law enforcement officials and offer long-sought-for protection to vulnerable groups threatened by hate-motivated violence, it will offer a modicum of comfort to all who have lost loved ones because of hate crimes. Passage of this hate crime legislation represents a civil act consistent with the moral foundations of our nation and all of the religious traditions which are at home within it.
To be sure, no law alone can remove hatred from our midst. But in an America increasingly rife with uncivil and narrow-minded bickering, this new law can serve as a ringing pronouncement of our democracy's common values–namely, that we utterly reject hate violence and embrace an America in which diverse people are safe as well as free," Gaddy said.
Rev. Timothy McDonald, chairman of African American Ministers in Action, said, "This bill exemplifies our deepest American values, it ensures strong action against senseless violence against people targeted simply because of who they are; and furthermore, it will protect the religious freedom of all clergy to speak out on any issue they feel passionately about."
With regard to that point, Attorney General Holder said, the statute will be used only to prosecute violent acts based on bias, as opposed to the prosecution of speech based on controversial racial or religious beliefs.
However, a number of pro-family and conservative organizations expressed anger with how the legislation cleared Congress, and concern over what impact it may have on free speech.
Traditional Values Coalition Executive Director, Andrea Lafferty, stated, "Dishonest politicians and their gay and transsexual allies attached this hate crimes bill to a must-pass defense authorization bill in order to force conservatives to vote for it.
Liberals knew they couldn't get this bill passed as a stand-alone bill, so they held our soldiers' well-being hostage in order to get this dangerous anti-Christian bill passed.
Hate crimes legislation is based on the phony premise that there's an epidemic of hate in America against LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) persons. This is false. FBI hate crimes statistics prove that most so-called hate crimes amount to little more than name-calling or pushing or shoving. Christians and other people of faith will now become targets for persecution and prosecution because of this hate crime provision," Lafferty said.
Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel for Alliance Defense Fund, observed, "This law is a grave threat to the First Amendment because it provides special penalties based on what people think, feel or believe. It paves the way for the criminalization of speech that is not deemed ‘politically correct.'
These types of crimes are already punishable under existing federal, state, and local laws. Violent crimes should be punished regardless of the characteristics of the victim. Bills of this sort are designed to forward a political agenda and silence critics, not combat actual crime. The bottom line is that we do not need a law that creates second-class victims in America and that gives the government the opportunity to ignore the First Amendment," Stanley said.
Dr. Gary Cass, president and ceo of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, noted, "In other nations, like Canada, where hate crime laws have been enacted, it is Christians - specifically conservative Christians - who hold to the historic Christian faith and its values, that become the object of institutionalized, governmental hate.
Christians who dare to tell the truth about the social, moral, spiritual and health consequences of illicit homosexual acts are accused of hate speech and intimidated into silence with threats of fine or jail.
The fact that the hate bill had to be passed in such an unscrupulous and cynical manner (attaching it to the Defense Authorization Act) reveals the depth of President Obama's commitment to a radical, anti-Christian agenda. He will stop at nothing to undermine the will of the majority of Americans to pay back militant homosexual activists who raised millions of dollars for his campaign and worked to get him elected," Cass said. Family Research Council President, Tony Perkins, said the legislation "violates the principle of equal justice under the law and threatens to infringe on the free speech rights of the American people."
Perkins continued, "This sets us on a slippery slope toward serious infringements of the freedom of speech and freedom of religion. This ‘hate crimes' law lays the legal foundation and framework for investigating, prosecuting and persecuting pastors, business owners, and anyone else whose actions reflect their faith."
American Family Association, in a statement, called the hate crimes measure, a sign of things to come.
"This is simply the first in a line of morally repugnant pro-homosexual bills that are on the horizon, such as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a bill to repeal the prohibition on homosexuals serving in the military, and a bill to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act," AFA stated.
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