At today's hearing, liberal supporters of the bill repeated assurances that pastors won't be prosecuted for the shear act of speaking the truth about homosexual behavior, but they refuse to admit that the pastor CAN be prosecuted if some nutcase harms a homosexual allegedly BECAUSE he heard the pastor's words, subsequently committing the crime.
UPDATE 7/3/09: Attorney General Holder testifies 'Gays' protected, ministers not
UPDATE 6/30/09: Entire hearing video available
-- From "Holder tells Congress new hate crime law needed" Associated Press 6/25/09
Attorney General Eric Holder urged Congress to pass a new hate crimes law so the government could prosecute cases of violence based on sexual orientation, gender or disability.
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday, he cited the recent killing of a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. The alleged assailant is a white supremacist.
Lawmakers debated the possible effect of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, named after a gay man killed in Wyoming in 1998. It would allow federal prosecution of violence committed because of the actual or perceived gender, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity of the victim.
According to FBI data, the number of hate crimes per year is relatively unchanged in the past 10 years. In 1998, the FBI reported 7,755 hate crime incidents and 7,624 in 2007.
About half of all hate crimes are motivated by racial bias. The other two most frequent hate crimes are those motivated by religion or sexual orientation.
[Senator] Sessions, who opposes the bill, and Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, who supports it, asked whether the law could be used to prosecute a church leader who speaks out against homosexuality, if a member of that congregation then assaults a gay person.
"This is a bill to hold people accountable for conduct, not for speech," Holder insisted.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Republican Senators Question Need for Hate Crimes Bill" by Andrea Fuller, New York Times 6/25/09
The House passed a version of the legislation in April, 249 to 175, and the Senate bill currently has 43 co-sponsors, including a handful of Republicans. Similar legislation has died in the past.
President Obama co-sponsored this legislation when he was in the Senate and has expressed his strong support for the bill, a fact reiterated by Attorney General Eric Holder when he appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee today.
Republicans on the judiciary panel, however, weren’t persuaded that the legislation was necessary, and questioned whether current state law enforcement was insufficient.
Senator Hatch also pointed out that the bill labels hate crimes as acts motivated by the perceived or actual status gender of a person. “This would make all rapes punishable as hate crimes,” he said.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
