Hate Crimes and “Special Rights”

How is it a “special right” to have your murder listed as a hate crime when the people who murdered you did so because they did not like who they thought you were? I have a problem with the anti-gay groups who say it is a special right for lgbt persons to be legally protected (by hate crimes legislation).

Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin wrote about a gay man who lived in a small town. He was brutally murdered by three men, yet his death did not show up in the hate crime statistics. The circumstances of his murder indicate that he was murdered because he was gay.

Jim said this murder was one hate crime that fell through the cracks in the reporting system. This is not breaking news. It happened two years ago. But, I believe it is still relevant. You can read the story and, for a moment, honor the memory of yet another good person who was brutally murdered by people who thought he did not deserve to live simply because he was gay.

The Hate Crimes Act of 1990 requires the FBI to compile and release an annual
summary of hate crimes in the United States… Unfortunately, the law doesn’t
require local law enforcement agencies to participate in the reporting program,
nor is there any funding to offset the costs of
collecting and reporting the
data.

Experts have noted that hate crimes based on sexual orientation are often
more brutal than the typical assult. Gay bashings … are often characterized by
“overkill”, indicating a higher level of emotional reaction on the part of the
attacker. This is one distinction which makes hate-motivated crimes different
from ordinary crimes, and it partly explains why thirty-one states have hate
crime laws which cover sexual orientation.

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