Congress passes hate crime protection for gays

And you’d think the sky is falling.

Physical attacks on people based on their sexual orientation will join the list of federal hate crimes in a major expansion of the civil rights-era law Congress approved Thursday and sent to President Barack Obama.

A priority of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., that had been on the congressional agenda for a decade, the measure expands current law to include crimes based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. The measure is named for Matthew Shepard, the gay Wyoming college student murdered 11 years ago.

[…] “Nothing in this legislation diminishes an American’s freedom of religion, freedom of speech or press or the freedom to assemble,” said Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md. “Let me be clear. The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act targets acts, not speech.”

That didn’t convince Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., who said the bill was a “dangerous step” toward thought crimes. He asked whether the bill would “serve as a warning to people not to speak out too loudly about their religious views.”

Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council, said the measure was “part of a radical social agenda that could ultimately silence Christians and use the force of government to marginalize anyone whose faith is at odds with homosexuality.”

Um, nobody on the Right is protesting hate crime laws (the same laws) that protect religion. Has anyone been imprisoned or “silenced” over their condemnation of Islam? Or calling Buddhism false? Or calling Jews Christ-killers? Or claiming that Hindus aren’t saved and are therefore going to Hell? Or, for that matter, for saying Christianity, or religion in general, is hazardous to societal health?

Of course not. And you’re not going to be arrested if you condemn folks from the pulpit for being gay. People might call you names back, mind you — but turnabout is fair play.

Now, if someone physically attacks you because you are Christian, then it’s deemed a hate crime. Ditto if they do it because you’re black. That protection has been extended to violent crimes committed because of your gender, your sexual orientation, your gender identity, or your disability. Or, per this bill, if it’s because you’re a member of the armed forces.

Perhaps we shouldn’t have hate crime legislation at all. If Tony Perkins is willing to get rid of the law against religious hate crimes, maybe we can reconsider this. We do have other “thought control” laws on the book as to intent (different degrees of homicide/murder). We already specially protect certain classes of victims (murder of a police officer, for example) and have laws that make other crimes worse due to the circumstances (murder committed during a felony, for example). But if we want to erase those off the books, too, and treat each crime solely in and of itself, let’s have that discussion.

In the meantime, this is long overdue. My only regret is that the Dems had to slide it in as part of a defense appropriations bill, though that did provide plenty of opportunity for GOP (“How dare the Democrats vote against our troops overseas just because we slipped something else into the defense bill?”) hypocrisy. Or maybe it’s quite proper that legislation to help our military defend our nation’s freedoms from attack would also protect against certain kinds of attack within our borders, too.