Hate crimes are criminal actions intended to harm or intimidate people because of their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, or other minority group status.
Justifications for harsher punishments for hate crimes focus on the notion that hate crimes cause greater individual and societal harm. In Wisconsin v. Mitchell, the SCOTUS unanimously found that "bias-motivated crimes are more likely to provoke retaliatory crimes, inflict distinct emotional harms on their victims, and incite community unrest. The State's desire to redress these perceived harms provides an adequate explanation for its penalty-enhancement provision over and above mere disagreement with offenders' beliefs or biases. As Blackstone said long ago, 'it is but reasonable that, among crimes of different natures, those should be most severely punished which are the most destructive of the public safety and happiness.'" It is said that, when the core of a person’s identity is attacked, the degradation and dehumanization is especially severe, and additional emotional and physiological problems are likely to result. Society then, in turn, can suffer from the disempowerment of a group of people. Furthermore, it is asserted that the chances for retaliatory crimes are greater when a hate crime has been committed.
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously found that penalty-enhancement hate crime statutes do not conflict with free speech rights because they do not punish an individual for exercising freedom of expression; rather, they allow courts to consider motive when sentencing a criminal for conduct which is not protected by the First Amendment.
When it enacted the Hate Crimes Act of 2000, the New York State Legislature found that: Hate crimes do more than threaten the safety and welfare of all citizens. They inflict on victims incalculable physical and emotional damage and tear at the very fabric of free society. Crimes motivated by invidious hatred toward particular groups not only harm individual victims but send a powerful message of intolerance and discrimination to all members of the group to which the victim belongs. Hate crimes can and do intimidate and disrupt entire communities and vitiate the civility that is essential to healthy democratic processes. In a democratic society, citizens cannot be required to approve of the beliefs and practices of others, but must never commit criminal acts on account of them. Current law does not adequately recognize the harm to public order and individual safety that hate crimes cause. Therefore, our laws must be strengthened to provide clear recognition of the gravity of hate crimes and the compelling importance of preventing their recurrence. Accordingly, the legislature finds and declares that hate crimes should be prosecuted and punished with appropriate severity." The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has compiled a map showing which states currently have Hate Crimes Laws on the books.
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Welcome to the fifth edition of WGLB TV "Sneers and Years Friday", a weekly news and video magazine presented here at Daily Kos expressly for the GLBT community, and it's family, friends and allies. Our goal is to provide the Daily Kos readership broader exposure to GLBT news, history, events, personalities and perspectives in a light-hearted and snarky environment that will hopefully make all visitors feel welcome and comfortable gabbing about anything and everything gay. This week's edition is heavy on the sneers again and asks the question, how many more victims need to die before legislation begins to address our 2nd class status in this country? Will a minority president empathize with our struggles enough to lead on this issue? Will the huge mandate afforded the 2008 Congress finally give them the cajones necessary to pass legislation giving the GLBT community more equal status under the constitution? Or will the blue tide of 2008 simply give mouth service to our cause the way the 2006 blue tide gave mouth service to defending the constitution???
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This case and Newsweek's spin on it was recently diaried by AndyS in Colorado. This 8th grader had the unmitigated audacity to act "different" and that was enough to get him murdered and that perceived threat to his killer will serve as a legal defense undoubtedly. Not quite as audacious as the "twinkie defense" but blaming the victim has been the preferred method to defend the murderers of GLBT for a number of years now.
You think the nation is becoming more tolerant towards the GLBT community? You'd be wrong. An average of four hate crimes are reported every day based on sexual orientation and these statistics are dramatically understated, with many closeted victims choosing not to report hate crimes due to the stigma associated with filing a formal criminal report and/or open hostility by many police departments to the GLBT community.
More from Mrs. Kern in this same tirade, referring to homosexuals...
"Not everybody's lifestyle is equal", snip,,, "They have more suicides, are more discouraged. There's more illness, Life spans are shorter."
These are about the only things this state representative from OK spews that are in fact correct. So nice of you and your "Christian" warriors to state the obvious and to dictate which rights we are entitled to.
Well Sally, I wonder what those statistics would reveal if you and your bible thumping friends would stop preaching hate and intolerance against our community? Shorter lifespans occur because your ravings and attacks encourage violence against us! More discouraged? Jeez, I wonder why that could be the case???
This perverted form of Christianity you, OK County Commissioner Brent Rinehart and the Fred Phelps of the world practice needs to be stamped out or at least held accountable for the violence your brand of free speech encourages. You and your 'born again' associates like to rail against the radical Muslim clerics preaching death to America. How far removed from that rhetoric is the rubbish flowing out of your mouths against gay Americans?
In 2006, 15.3 percent of the 9,652 victims of hate crimes were targeted because of a bias against sexual orientation. That amounts to 1477 hate crimes and 4 per day. Data for 2007 is not yet available online. (FBI data)
How could the straight members of the DailyKos community be unaware that these crimes are still happening so regularly to GLBT Americans? Add in the suicide numbers and it's amazing we still have GLBT people at all in many areas.
A white, middle class kid gets crucified in Montana and it grabs the nation's attention, for a few months. Does anything concrete come from Matt's murder??? There still is no federal hate crimes law on the books, 10 years later... There is still no national workplace non-discrimination law for GLBT employees. Military still kicks us out for even mentioning our private lives, and marriage is only legal in two states at the moment, with one of those being voted on in november. We are second class citizens!!! We should stop paying federal income tax. That would open their eyes. How would they respond? "No taxation without representation?" I'd be curious to know just what percent of a straight American citizen all these curtailed rights makes GLBT Americans. Any statisticians in the crowd?
This week's rant from under the rainbow continues with the hate crimes theme.
On this issue, I agree with Larry Kramer when he voices outrage at the lack of outrage on our community's part. We do need an 2nd act of Act-Up. Instead of allowing the bigots to go unchallenged, we need more in-your-face confrontation and civil disobedience. F*ck suicide, turn that depression and frustration into anger and action and find constructive ways to channel it for the good of our community! Hollywood has gone a long way in presenting gay and lesbian characters in a positive light these past few years. We now need more positive gay and lesbian characters of strength and leadership being regularly depicted in dramatic roles. Believe it or not, we actually work real jobs, have real families, face real struggles, above and beyond the camp and comic relief you see us portray on tv...
I knew in middle school that I was "different", and I chose to deal with it by being truant through most of my middle and high school years. It's a tribute to the lack of standards required to be passed, even in those days, that I wasn't held back a grade. Towards the end of high school, what I perceived as my "differences" began to register with me as being gay. By the end of my senior year I stopped with the self imposed isolation and self-destructive truant routine and decided to take a more pro-active approach to my life, by showing the other students just how academically competitive someone "different" could be. I miraculously kicked ass on the SAT exam and not only got into college but was able to pick which major/program I wanted to enroll in. Being the competitive jerk I am, I chose the most difficult major available, and very unhappily completed my first semester of college as an engineering major... The inner geek eventually took over and saw me racking up degrees in science, biochemistry, biophysics, physical chemistry and inorganic chemistry. So if anyone ever tries to tell you youngsters, struggling with orientation issues, you can't make it. Tell them to fuck off because you've already survived a greater struggle than they are ever likely to encounter, and just hang tough. With hard work and wise decisions, anything is possible. Just hold on for that brighter day which surely will come! I mean look at me, a not terribly bright, not at all motivated, geek from high school who channeled his frustrations into constructive pursuits like academia to become a Harvard professor and tops in his field in the world. Miracles can and do happen! But you'll never know if you give up and let the bastards win. Hold on for one more day. (I thought about embedding the Wilson-Phillips video here but that would be cheesy!)
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This week's morning music selection to play us out is by Moodswings featuring Chrissy Hynde with "Spiritual High" from their Moodfood album.