Hate Crime Legislation
Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, February 6, 2015 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler
S.B. 47, introduced January 26th by Senator Fort, would change the law and drastically change culture. Currently, every citizen has equal protection under the law, regardless of race, religion, sex or national origin. Race is a characteristic of birth; national origin reflects the country of birth; religion is a spiritual choice; and sex defines natural identity. However, gender, gender identity and sexual orientation reflect aberrant sexual behavior, some of which have been prohibited for thousands of years under moral law, as well as civil law.
Gender is not a synonym for the word “sex,” which depicts male or female biological identity, while gender, gender identity and sexual orientation indicate the preferred sexual behavior or lifestyle of the individual.
S.B. 47 would enhance penalties for certain crimes, according to the REAL or PERCEIVED lifestyle of the victim. For example: upon conviction, an assault of a heterosexual (straight) individual on another heterosexual (straight) individual would be punishable as a misdemeanor, that might result in a “slap-on-the-wrist” or months in the county jail.If the victim of that same simple assault were perceived to be of a different gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation than the person convicted, the penalty would increase to a misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature, a more serious offense demanding more severe punishment, because the victim’s sexual behavior deviated from the norm. So, based on the victim’s actual or perceived lifestyle, penalties would become more stringent for simple battery, aggravated battery, and criminal damage to property. Meaning, victims choosing aberrant lifestyles would be more valued and more protected than victims with customary lifestyles.
Current law provides special protection for race, religion, and nationality, but this bill adds variant sexual behavior, ad infinitum, to those protected categories. S.B. 47 is in Senator Jesse Stone’s Non-Civil Judiciary Committee. Call him at 404 463-1314 and ask him to keep S.B. 47 in his committee.
Again this year, a bill was pre-filed, but not yet officially introduced, to add gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity to anti-bully policies in schools, although current bully policies treat every student equally, regardless of lifestyle. H.B. 40 was pre-filed January 9th by Representative Keisha Waites, to withhold funding from schools that do not include gender, gender identity and sexual orientation as, specially, protected categories in their bully policies.
But this is the problem. The definition of bullying is so extreme that it classifies as bullying any negative comment or disagreement about lifestyle. That classification could infringe on student freedom of thought and expression. I’ll give you contact information on H.B. 40 when it’s available. For Georgia Insight I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent.