Senate Drops Gays from Hate Crimes Bill

Senate Drops Gays from Hate Crimes Bill

WASHINGTON - Congress has dropped legislation that would have expanded laws against hate crimes to include attacks on gays after it became clear the measure wouldn't pass the House, aides said Thursday.


The bill, sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., was widely supported by Democrats and some moderate Senate Republicans. But because it was attached to a major defense policy bill that would have authorized more money for the Iraq war, many anti-war Democrats said they would oppose it.

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Stupid liberals.

Finally....the Senate does something right...

Finally....the Senate does something right...

You support crimes against gays?

Bilbo Baggins wrote:

Finally....the Senate does something right...

You support crimes against gays?

Hate is not a crime mofo.

Hate is not a crime mofo.

You hate gays then?

Bilbo Baggins wrote:

Hate is not a crime mofo.

You hate gays then?

The term hate crime is retarded. Most major crimes are motivated by hate.

Bilbo Baggins wrote:

Hate is not a crime mofo.

You hate gays then?

I hate you.
Are you homosexual?

I don't hate ya Bilbo, not even if you're gay but I do worry about the fascist trend towards policing "thought crimes".

If you punch me (or try to) I'm going to hurt you, doesn't matter if your gay or not. But suddenly under the fascist hate crime laws I might be subject to draconian federal bias crime laws if you turn out to be a gay. So exactly who is going to read my mind and determine if I hated you the moment I punched you.

We already police peoples actions. If I punch a straight person is it really any different than if I punch a gay person? NO! What if I hate gay people? Don't matter, when you start trying to punish people because of what they think you're more than half way to a fascist police state! I know people that hate me, have threatened to kill me and my family (I have that affect on people sometimes), should I be able to lock them up because they hate me. NO, but they had better keep their hands in plain sight anywhere around me!

Equality under the law means exactly that..... equal. Hate crime laws discriminate and make some among us "more equal", subject to different rules, different laws, different penalties.

hate crimes are a bunch of bullshit, we already have laws we just need to enforce them . Hate crime laws just infuriate the prejudices in people and create more problems

I hate you.
Are you homosexual?

I wish I was just to annoy you, but sadly I enjoy only the company of women. I'm glad that I have annoyed you enough to hate me, because you deserve it.

We already police peoples actions. If I punch a straight person is it really any different than if I punch a gay person? NO! What if I hate gay people? Don't matter, when you start trying to punish people because of what they think you're more than half way to a fascist police state! I know people that hate me, have threatened to kill me and my family (I have that affect on people sometimes), should I be able to lock them up because they hate me. NO, but they had better keep their hands in plain sight anywhere around me!

But what if the conflict is entirely motivated from the fact that you dislike (to stay on topic) gay people? You only attacked and fought them because they are gay? Surely that deserves greater punishment, as you are showing a complete lack of tolerance for another person's lifestyle?

If you punch me (or try to) I'm going to hurt you, doesn't matter if your gay or not. But suddenly under the fascist hate crime laws I might be subject to draconian federal bias crime laws if you turn out to be a gay. So exactly who is going to read my mind and determine if I hated you the moment I punched you.

I agree it would be unfair to be charged under a hate crime for this, but I think it would have to be pretty clearly proven that you incited the fight (which you wouldn't have under this scenario) and you fought only because the opposition was gay (which wouldn't be the case as you were defending yourself).

But already we can see that the common sense approach to hate crime laws is devolving into every homosexual that believes someone has wronged or insulted him / her should be charged with a hate crime. Hell, they already scream gay discrimination when they're not hired or are fired from a job. I

I could make a point that nearly every crime is a hate crime to some extent. Old, young, black, brown, white, yellow, gay, straight, skinny, fat, ugly, pretty, Jew, Christian, Muslim the list goes on and on and once you understand that everyone is different you can understand that policing thought crime is stupid and fascist.

Freedom of thought, even ugly nasty thoughts is (should) be a very liberal notion yet it doesn't ever surprise me when liberals are the first people to censor everything they can and shut down thoughts they don't agree with.

Remember that it was Al Gore's wife who wanted to censor song lyrics years ago.

But already we can see that the common sense approach to hate crime laws is devolving into every homosexual that believes someone has wronged or insulted him / her should be charged with a hate crime. Hell, they already scream gay discrimination when they're not hired or are fired from a job.

Where are the facts to support this? Seems like a gross generalisation to me

I could make a point that nearly every crime is a hate crime to some extent. Old, young, black, brown, white, yellow, gay, straight, skinny, fat, ugly, pretty, Jew, Christian, Muslim the list goes on and on and once you understand that everyone is different you can understand that policing thought crime is stupid and fascist.

I don't think so. A poor person who robs a neighbour to feed their family isn't motivated by hate. I don't think its right when someone commits a crime against another motivated only by the fact they disagree with their lifestyle choice, rather than being directly antagonized (e.g. the guy slept with your wife), and they deserve a greater punishment for not showing the tolerance and respect that a functioning society requires. You can disagree with their beliefs, but you can't break the law to express that disagreement.

Well of course you would use a crime against property, especially one based on feeding a family, as a strawman in this discussion or are you saying that if the neighbor is gay maybe even stealing to feed his family would be a hate crime. If you say that couldn't happen then maybe you need to read what this law would have done.

Let's look at this another way, if thought crime becomes illegal just think what thoughts we just might want to put people in jail for. As a nation we're becoming more and more fascist nearly every day. Freedom of speech isn't nearly as much of a right as it once was and under this law even what 'beer posted earlier could have been a crime with no attempt to act on what he believed.

Always remember that is isn't the conservatives who want to take rights away from people, it's the left that hates free speech and thought.

Always remember that is isn't the conservatives who want to take rights away from people, it's the left that hates free speech and thought.

Well I'm all for free speech so there's at least one lefty. I'm not even sure where I stand on this law, as I don't have enough of a legal knowledge, but I don't think its entirely unreasonable. Conservatives aren't immune to trying to stamp on free speech - what about the threats to Mark Cuban over his support of Redacted. I believe Bill O'Reilly (perhaps not a great example considering his standing around here) said that he would personally come after Cuban if he didn't pull funding (via the media, obviously not physical hunt him down). Thats a blatant example of trying to bully people into not expressing dissent on issues like the Iraq War. Conservatives always harp on about how Bush shouldn't be criticized during the war because its still going on and its helping the 'terrorists', but this is just an attempt to squash people who disagree with them. Slightly off topic but had to be said.