H.R. 2647 Hate Crime Bill?

"My client admits he beat that young man almost to death; but he did it because he was gay, not because he was a Mormon. Therefore, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you can't vote to punish him as you would if he beat him because he was Mormon."

In a perfect world, we wouldn't need The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr Act to enforce stiffer penalties for Hate Crimes. But, unfortunately, we don't live in a perfect world. We live in a world with a lot of people who are full of hate, anger, and ignorance. And every day babies are born to parents who will teach them to grow up hating anyone different than themselves and being angry because no one else will do anything about it.

I'm hearing a lot of angry people talking about the "Hate Crime Bill" that Congress passed yesterday and that the President will certainly sign. Two points have been brought up: Why do we need to create more protected classes? and, Why did they "hide" it in another bill?

There are two important issues. The first is we need protected classes because we don't live in a world where everyone abides by the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. If people were tolerant of each other, we wouldn't need any protected classes at all.

Now, let's examine the "hiding" of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr Act in the National Defense Authorization Act.

The National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 2647) authorizes appropriations for fiscal year 2010 military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities for the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, to provide special pay and allowances to certain members of the Armed Forces, expand current receipt of military retirement and VA disability benefits to disabled military retirees, and for other purposes.

Here is how the Utah politicians voted:

Senator Bennett voted no,
Senator Hatch did not vote,
Congressman Chaffetz voted no,
Congressman Matheson voted yes,
Congressman Bishop voted no.


Before the vote, I wrote to both the Senator's and asked why they opposed H.R. 2647. They both responded in writing:

Senator Bennett stated he opposed the Bill because of the Matthew Shepard Act was included. He wrote that the current laws were working well, so why create new ones.

Senator Hatch stated he opposes any law that creates protected classes. He wrote that by creating protected classes, we are only creating more hate. So I asked him if he would then support legislation to remove other protected classes such as race and religion. He refused to answer. I don't disagree with his not wanting to create protected classes...hell, I'd love to live in a world where we didn't need them! But now, at a time when Hatch is under a lot of scrutiny, he doesn't vote on this issue even though he is in Washington and could have voted.

So both Utah Senators and two of the Utah Congressmen did not vote on the National Defense budget because of their feelings towards gays?

One can not "blame" the Democratic party for hiding this Act in H.R. 2647. This Act has been voted on 5 times, and each time it has been included in a military bill. In 2007, it was included in the Defense Authorization Bill, which was passed by the Senate, which was not controlled by the Democrats at the time. The Act was dropped after President Bush stated he would veto the bill.

In fact, H. R. 2647 has a number of Acts included with it, to include: The Part-Time Reemployment of Annuitants Act of 2009, sponsored by Republican Susan Collins and The Victims of Iranian Censorship Act, co-sponsored by Republican John McCain and Lindsey Graham and others. Neither of these Acts have anything to do with the military budget, but I don't hear Congressmen Chaffetz and Bishop citing these Acts as reasons for voting "no" to the bill. But, both Congressmen cited the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr Act as the reason they opposed the Bill.

I have to wonder... if it weren't for the gays, what would the religious conservatives be spending their energy and money on?