"The qualifications [in the bill] are so broad that virtually any crime involving a homosexual individual has potential to have hate crimes elements."
--White House spokesman Tony Fratto, The Washington Times 8/4/07

This is the White House's latest rationale for threatening a Presidential veto to the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a new federal hate crimes bill that passed the House overwhelmingly in May and is currently pending in the Senate.

The right is pulling out all the stops on this one. People who have never cared a whit about civil rights – or African Americans for that matter – have rounded up a couple of compliant black ministers to oppose the bill by claiming it will stifle their ability to condemn homosexuality from the pulpit and thus, inhibits their freedom of speech and freedom of religion. They're claiming the hate crimes bill would make the murder of a gay somehow more significant than the murder of someone who isn't gay. And they are claiming now the bill is overreaching, despite the fact that the bill addresses violence.

This is utter nonsense.

This reasoning ignores the matter of intent as a motivating factor in criminal actions. Our legal system has long understood that crimes are committed for a variety of reasons – and it has responded accordingly. The murder of a person over money or for their possessions is different from the murder of a person for being gay or disabled. It is intended to be. This is no different than the distinction between manslaughter and first-degree murder, two types of murder that are distinguished by the intent of the person committing the act.

Hate crimes laws protecting black Americans and people of faith are already on the books because our society recognized that the kind of attacks these groups suffered were designed to terrorize entire categories of people, not just the victim.

This is the same situation for sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, and disability. Passing this bill sends a powerful message about the importance of all our nation’s citizens, regardless of who they are or their sexual orientation.

The statistics bear repeating again. Hate crimes committed against people because of their sexual orientation have remained a significant percentage of total hate crimes committed in the U.S. each year -- between 14 and 20 percent a year for the past 9 years. And hate crimes against people with disabilities, though small, went up in the past two years for which we have statistics.

Hate crimes are being committed and local law enforcement is sometimes unable to adequately address the problem. This legislation will make it easier for federal officials to go in and help local officials prosecute these cases. In fact, local law enforcement overwhelmingly support this legislation because they want the help.

They understand that hate crimes are underreported. In 2005, the number of agencies reporting hate crimes to the FBI dropped by 300 from 2004. In addition, cities like New York and Phoenix didn’t bother to report at all.

Modest federal intervention can help change these kinds of statistics.

But still our policy opponents lie about the possibility that their First Amendment rights will be violated. And the most important rebuttal to any of these claims lies in the bill itself, which says:

"Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, shall be construed to prohibit any expressive conduct protected from legal prohibition by, or any activities protected by the free speech or free exercise clauses of, the First Amendment to the Constitution."

Despite the media's coverage of a few black ministers opposed to the bill, there are many members of the religious community who support this law. Nearly 1400 ministers of all faiths have signed a letter of support for the bill at ClergyAgainstHate.org. And that list continues to grow.

The Senate will consider this important legislation when they return from August recess. It is important that supporters of this bill speak up in support of civil rights and simple justice.

More on the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act.