Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007: Don't Hate It

Issue: Should the Federal Hate Crime Law be expanded to include crimes committed based on the victim’s gender or sexual orientation?

I thought an interesting topic for the blog today would be the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007. The bill, which was passed in the House back in May, is soon to go up in from of the Senate. Probably in the next couple of days. The law would extend the Federal Hate Crime Law to include crimes committed based on the sexual orientation of the victim. Currently, the law covers crimes tied to someone’s race, color, national origin, or religion.

The issue has been stirring up quite a controversy. On the one hand, some argue that such legislation goes against freedom of speech and religion. Quoting a recent editorial in the Fredericksburg Freelance Star, titled “Hate This”, someone writes that “Adding gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity to the protected groups risks stifling discussion and hamstringing religious freedom. In other countries with strong “hate crimes” laws–notably Sweden and Canada–pastors have stood trial for preaching that homosexual behavior is a sin.”

The other side of the coin is that crimes against gays and lesbians are the third most common type of hate crime, following race and religion, and crimes that fall into this category deserve justic equal to other types of hate crimes. In response to the “Hate This” editorial, someone eloquently makes this case. They write, “The current hate-crime law applies only to violent crimes committed because of the victim’s race, color, national origin, or religion. To deliberately exclude the third-most-reported category from the existing hate-crime bill sends its own hateful message.”

In 2004, there were 1,197 incidents of crime where the bias motivation was based on the victim’s sexual orientation, according to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports. While the problem pervades in every corner of the United States, in both rural and urban environments and across multiple counties and cities, and interesting aspect to this is that the concentration of incidents in the city appear to be limited to a few parts of the country. The heat map below reveals these hotspots.

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How are the candidates weighing in on the issue?

The Human Rights Campaign publishes a scorecard that rates members of congress on issues tied to sexual orientation and on how they have voted in congress on related bills. It looks like a great resource to find out how many of our 2008 Presidential candidates feel about the issue at the center of today’s blog.

How do you weigh in on the issue?

Want to find out more about hate crime in the United States?

If you go to geocommons and type the words “hate” and “crime” you can explore how prevalent other types of hate crimes are and look also at hate crimes that have occurred at universities.