Bush May Veto Bill That Would Help Protect Hate Crime Victims (Women's eNews, via AlterNet)

[marmar]

Bush May Veto Bill That Would Help Protect Hate Crime Victims

By Allison Stevens, Women's eNews. Posted May 18, 2007.



Women could stand to gain substantially from a law that would expand hate crime definitions to include gender, sexual orientation and disability. But will the legislation stand a chance?

WASHINGTON -- Women's rights groups are making a last-ditch push to enact legislation that would expand existing "hate crimes" laws to include gender and other categories such as sexual orientation, gender identity and disability.

The bill cleared a major hurdle on May 4 when it passed in the House of Representatives.

But the White House quickly dampened advocates' spirits with a veto threat on the same day, saying the bill is unnecessary because victims are covered under existing law.

White House aides also objected on the grounds that it would leave other classes of people, such as the elderly, members of the military and police officers, without similar status. Current law covers crimes based on race, color, religion or national origin.

But after 15 years spent lobbying for the bill, advocates are not giving up.

"It looks like it will be unlikely that it will become law, but we will keep working at it," said Olga Vives, a vice president at the National Organization for Women in Washington, D.C.

If the legislation becomes law, it would establish uniform protections for women and girls who are victims of hate crimes around the country. Currently, 28 states include gender in their own versions of hate-crimes laws.

If the bill fails, advocates say a hard-won opportunity to specifically address hate crimes against women and girls will be lost, or at least put on hold until a different president occupies the White House.

...(snip)...

Lesbian and gay rights groups are a driving force behind the legislation. On the day it passed the House, Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the only openly gay man in the House, presided in the speaker's chair.

Opposition to the bill, stemming largely from social and religious conservatives, has also centered around its provisions relating to sexuality.

Critics say the bill would grant gays and lesbians "preferential treatment" by elevating them to a specially protected class of victim. And they warn that the law could be used to gag religious clergy and advocates from expressing opposition to the "homosexual" lifestyle and other behaviors like cross-dressing.

"Victims are -- and should be -- treated equally in the justice system, regardless of their sexual orientation," said Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, an advocacy group in Washington, D.C.

"This hate crimes bill would overturn this balance, creating second-class victims and a federal justice system that discriminates against grandmothers, children, women and men simply because they are heterosexual." .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/rights/52034/?page=1

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. Surprise, surprise n/t

[oscarmitre]

2. That assumes too much.

It assumes that in some jurisdictions police, prosecutors and judges take any of these offences seriously enough to pursue them. The objections are pure bullshit.