Tiny Queer Footballs

Hate Crimes and Lies

The other day on my blog I posted a letter that some guy had written about the Hate Crime legislation.  As you can tell from my postings, this has become one of my favorite things to blog about because the level of lies has increased from these anti-gay activists.  I am totally sick of these lies and what they do to people.  Today (May 12, 2007), the San Francisco Chronicle printed my response.  I’ll print the original letter and my response again (the paper added the title):

Stop all hate crime

Editor — It’s not often that I agree with President Bush. But a veto of the proposed federal hate crime law now before Congress would be the right thing to do.

The problem with the law is that it makes one victim’s life more valuable than another’s. If a gay person is murdered because the killer hates gays, the penalty would be more severe than it would be for a killer who murders someone in a robbery. That makes the gay person’s life more valuable than that of the robbery victim. That is just plain wrong.

CHARLES AMUNDSON

Walnut Creek

Here is my response:

Motive does matter

Editor — The main reason why so many people are upset about this newer version of the federal hate-crime legislation is because it will include gays and lesbians, pure and simple. Thus, there have been many lies and misunderstandings regarding the hate-crime bill. Some anti-gay groups claim it punishes thoughts, which is a total lie and all it takes is five minutes to read the proposed legislation to see that it only punishes violent actions based on hatred — not violent speech based on hatred.

Another lie is that it would make the life of a gay person more valuable than someone else.

Our system is based on motivation, which is why we have first-degree murder, second-degree murder and so on. The life of a person who is killed by someone who planned the murder is not more valuable than someone who is killed accidentally. But the penalties for these two crimes are different. The same goes for hate crimes. Crime motivated by hatred against a religion, against a race or against a sexual orientation is not based on who is more valuable. To say this shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the justice system.

KEVIN KAATZ

San Francisco

RSS 12. May 2007 (09:57)
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