Anyone who attacks a gay person, anyone who attacks a black person for no reason other that their color or sexual orientation should be punished, but to set aside those two groups or others and say those crimes are greater than an attack on a 12 year boy or a old white man is something totally Un-American. Something we as fair-minded people should condemn. Yet, this is what the Congress is moving toward. For one American to have greater protection than another under the laws of this country is repugnant and cannot be justified by any thinking American. Those who support such legislation are clearly playing toward special interest groups who think their rights out weight the rights of the average person. This is a simple common sense matter, however many seek to complicate the obvious in order to please these special interest groups. This law will most certainly pass and it is just another slap at the common man.Social conservatives opposed to a hate crimes bill that would extend federal protection to gay and transgender victims and nearing passage in Congress are mounting a last-ditch effort to defeat it.
Social conservatives opposed to a hate crimes bill that would extend federal protection to gay and transgender victims are mounting a last-ditch effort to defeat it -- even as it nears passage in Congress
The House voted Thursday to make it a federal crime to assault people because of their sexual orientation, significantly expanding the U.S. hate crimes law enacted in the days after the 1968 assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr..
The Senate is expected to pass the bill, allowing federal prosecutors for the first time to intervene in cases of violence perpetrated against gays.
No one is arguing against the prosecution of assaults. But opponents, fearing threats to free speech under broad interpretations of the legislation, are pushing voters to contact their senators to voice their displeasure over the expansion of the existing law. They acknowledge the odds are against them.
"It's going to be very difficult to defeat at this stage," said Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, a law firm that works on religious freedom cases.
Staver said he is hoping for a "groundswell of support" to stop the bill dead in its tracks and at the very least raise awareness of the bill's far-reaching impact. If that fails, Staver said his groups is "strongly considering" filing a lawsuit based on the broad language of the bill that he says would allow federal intervention into past cases, including ones of alleged rape.
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