WASHINGTON—The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday added sexual identity to the federal government’s definition of hate crimes. The measure, an amendment to H.R. 2647—the $680 billion, must-pass National Defense Authorization Act—still requires Senate approval before becoming law. The Senate could act as early as this week. President Barack Obama already has promised to sign the bill.
The bill, the first major update of hate-crimes law since the original legislation was enacted following the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., adds gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability to the current list that includes race, color, religion and national origin. In addition, the bill criminalizes attacks against U.S. service members.
Late additions to the bill also strengthened protections for religious speech and association, but that did little to stem outcry from the conservative right. Unlike most defense-spending bills, opposition to H.R. 2647 came mostly from Republicans. Of the 146 “nay” votes, 131 were tendered by Republican representatives who said they objected to including “thought crimes” legislation in a defense bill and were worried that pastors who speak out against homosexuality could be prosecuted if their sermons later were connected to violence against the LGBT community.
“The inclusion of ‘thought crimes’ legislation in what is otherwise a bipartisan bill for troop funding is an absolute disgrace,” Rep. Tom Price of Georgia, head of the GOP conservative caucus, told the Associated Press.
“The idea that we’re going to pass a law that’s going to add further charges to someone based on what they may have been thinking, I think is wrong,” House Republican leader John A. Boehner of Ohio told The New York Times.
Rep. Todd Akin [R-Mo.], who helped write the military appropriations part of the bill, told the Times, “We believe this is a poison pill, poisonous enough that we refuse to be blackmailed into voting for a piece of social agenda that has no place in this bill.”
Critics outside Capitol Hill went so far as to threaten court action if the bill becomes law.
“The religious protections are pretty flimsy,” Family Research Council Vice President Tom McClusky told the AP, adding that “the next step likely would be contesting the legislation in court.”
Democrats and supporters of the measure, however, said it is past time to bring federal sanctions up to date. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi [D-Calif.] said her agenda has included hate-crimes legislation for more than two decades.
“No American should ever have to suffer persecution or violence because of who they are, how they look or what they believe,” she told the AP.
Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese added, “The day is within sight when lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people will benefit from updating our nation’s hate crimes laws and giving local law enforcement the tools they need to combat hate violence.”
Forty-five states currently have hate-crimes laws on the books. H.R. 2647 does not remove authority from those states, but would offer federal funding to help with prosecution and to educate juveniles. In addition, the bill allows federal prosecutors and investigators to step in when states are unwilling or unable to act on violent crimes committed against LGBT individuals and groups.
FBI statistics indicate racial bias motivates more than half of the approximately 8,000 hate crimes reported nationally each year. The next most frequently occurring category comprises crimes precipitated by religious bias (about 18 percent). Sexual-orientation crimes, about 16 percent, follow a close third, but officials are unsure whether such crimes always receive a “hate crime” label.
