As you may have already heard, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on
Thursday to expand the definition of violent federal hate crimes to include
those which are committed because of a person's sexual orientation.

Before the meaning of this House vote gets twisted out of context by
individuals with Far Right conservative views in order to promote their
personal agendas, it is important to emphasize that this bill does NOT make
it a crime for any American -- be they religious or otherwise -- to publicly
express their honest views regarding the gay and lesbian lifestyle. As
Christians, we are NOT going to be arrested for publicly expressing our
Bible-based belief that the gay and lesbian lifestyle is sinful . . . at
least this is NOT the bill's intention.

What this bill does is give the Federal Government the authority to
prosecute individuals who commit violent crimes which are motivated by a
person's dislike or hatred towards another individual's sexual preference.
The key words here are "violent crimes", such as murdering someone because
they are gay.

Personally, I feel that there is some redundancy in this bill. After all, if
a person murders another person, and is caught, they are going to be
prosecuted, regardless of whatever the motivation may have been for
committing the murder.

Of course, I am opposed to the fact that the passage of this bill -- should
it occur -- will encourage even more people to embrace the gay and lesbian
lifestyle, and to openly flaunt their sin before us -- and our children --
even more, with absolute impunity, and with federal protection.

Is this bill setting a dangerous precedent for the future if it passes the
final legal hurdles? Will "thought crimes" be the next thing on the agenda,
as in the Tom Cruise movie "Minority Report"? Possibly. Time will tell.

I am also opposed to the fact that this hate crime bill was slyly added to
the totally unrelated military spending bill. Practicing these kinds of
politics is low-down and dirty; and yet sadly, Washington politicians pull
these kinds of stunts all the time. It's what political bargaining is all
about. "I'll give you what you want if you give me what I want in return."

Below is an article from the New York Times.


House Votes to Expand Definition of Hate Crimes

By CARL HULSE - NYT

October 8, 2009


WASHINGTON -- The House voted Thursday to expand the definition of violent
federal hate crimes to those committed because of a victim's sexual
orientation, a step that would extend new protection to lesbian, gay and
transgender people.

The measure was named in part for Matthew Shepard, a gay Wyoming college
student murdered in 1998.

Representative John A. Boehner, the House Republican leader, voiced
opposition to the measure.

Democrats hailed the vote of 281 to 146, which brought the measure to the
brink of becoming law, as the culmination of a long push to curb violent
expressions of bias like the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay Wyoming
college student.

"Left unchecked, crimes of this kind threaten to ruin the very fabric of
America," said Representative Susan A. Davis, Democrat of California, a
leading supporter of the legislation.

Under current federal law, hate crimes that fall under federal jurisdiction
are defined as those motivated by the victim's race, color, religion or
national origin.

The new measure would broaden the definition to include those committed
because of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. It was
approved by the House right before a weekend when gay rights will be a focus
in Washington, with a march to the Capitol and a speech by President Obama
to the Human Rights Campaign.

Republicans criticized the legislation, saying violent attacks were already
illegal regardless of motive. They said the measure was an effort to create
a class of "thought crimes" whose prosecution would require ascribing
motivation to the attacker.

Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader, called
the legislation radical social policy.

"The idea that we're going to pass a law that's going to add further charges
to someone based on what they may have been thinking, I think is wrong," Mr.
Boehner said.

Republicans were also furious that the measure was attached to an essential
$681 billion military policy bill, and accused Democrats of legislative
blackmail.

Even some Republican members of the usually collegial House Armed Services
Committee who helped write the broader legislation, which authorizes
military pay, weapons programs and other necessities for the armed forces,
opposed the bill in the end, solely because of the hate crimes provision.

"We believe this is a poison pill, poisonous enough that we refuse to be
blackmailed into voting for a piece of social agenda that has no place in
this bill," said Representative Todd Akin of Missouri, a senior Republican
member of the committee.

On the final vote, 237 Democrats were joined by 44 Republicans in support of
the bill; 131 Republicans and 15 Democrats opposed it. The Democratic
opponents were a mix of conservatives who were against the hate crimes
provision and liberals opposed to Pentagon provisions.

The military bill has yet to be approved by the Senate. But the hate crimes
provision has solid support there, and Senator John McCain of Arizona, the
senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the overall
bill outweighed his own objections to including the hate crimes measure.

Mr. Obama supports the hate crimes provision, though the White House has
raised objections to elements of the bill related to military acquisitions.
If signed into law, the hate crimes legislation would reflect the ability of
Democrats to enact difficult measures with their increased majorities in
Congress and a Democrat in the White House.

"Elections have consequences," Mr. McCain said.

Similar hate crime provisions have passed the House and the Senate in
previous years but have never been able to clear their final hurdles.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that it was fitting that Congress was
acting now, since next Monday is the 11th anniversary of Matthew Shepard's
killing. The hate crimes part of the bill is named for Mr. Shepard and James
Byrd Jr., a black man killed in a race-based attack in Texas the same year.

The hate crimes legislation would give the federal government authority to
prosecute violent crimes of antigay bias when local authorities failed to
act. It would also allocate $5 million a year to the Justice Department to
provide assistance to local communities in investigating hate crimes, a
process that can sometimes strain police resources. And it would allow the
department to assist in the inquiry and local prosecution if requested.

"The problem of crimes motivated by bias," the measure says, "is
sufficiently serious, widespread and interstate in nature as to warrant
federal assistance to states, local jurisdictions and Indian tribes."

Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who heads the Armed Services
Committee, said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation recorded reports of
more than 77,000 hate crimes from 1998 through 2007 and that crimes based on
sexual orientation were on an upward trend.

"The hate crimes act will hopefully deter people from being targeted for
violent attacks because of the color of their skin or their religion, their
disability, their gender or their sexual orientation, regardless of where
the crime takes place," he said.

But Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, the No. 3 House Republican, said
the measure could inhibit freedom of speech and deter religious leaders from
discussing their views on homosexuality for fear that those publicly
expressed views might be linked to later assaults.

"It is just simply wrong," Mr. Pence said, "to use a bill designed to
support our troops to reverse the very freedoms for which they fight."

Democrats, however, noted that the bill would specifically bar prosecution
based on an individual's expression of "racial, religious, political or
other beliefs." It also states that nothing in the measure should be
"construed to diminish any rights under the First Amendment to the
Constitution."



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