Legislation to create a new category of crime for actions said to be motivated by prejudice based on specific characteristics, including “sexual orientation” and “gender identity,” could get a vote in the U.S. Senate as soon as Monday.
Democrats have attached an amendment to a Defense spending bill that would create federally protected “class status” for homosexuals, bisexuals, transvestites, “transgender” and “transsexual” people.
"You’re essentially creating a civil right based on immoral and changeable behavior, and that’s a bad precedent to set in the law," said Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth.
The House of Representatives passed an identical version of the legislation May 3 by a vote of 237 to 180.
On Monday, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council will join Focus on the Family's Dr. Bill Maier and Tom Minnery to discuss hate crimes on the Focus on the Family radio broadcast.
"This legislation is essentially a federal power grab," said Matt Barber, policy director for cultural issues at Concerned Women for America. "It circumvents the 10th Amendment, which guarantees states' rights, and the authority of state police power, and gives the federal government power to police and to govern and to monitor and to enforce crime at a municipal, or local level, which is really constitutionally dubious."
Ashley Horne, federal policy analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said Democrats are using a political tactic by tacking hate-crimes legislation onto Defense spending.
"The president has already indicated he would veto a hate-crimes bill," she said. "They’ve inserted this bill as an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill, and that puts the president in a difficult position."
Horne and Barber are encouraging pro-family Americans to get involved.
"People should call the Senate," Barber said, "and let their senators know that this hate-crimes legislation is dangerous, that it can have a slippery slope effect, and really can oppress freedom of religion and freedom of speech. It's entirely unnecessary because the Constitution and 14th Amendment guarantee equal protection under the law."
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