Perhaps if openly gay U.S. Congressman Jared Polis (pictured above) weren’t relying so much on “new media” for his information, he would’ve known there are no federal protections against anti-gay hate crimes.
Polis, the 33-year-old freshman Democrat from Colorado, put his foot in his mouth recently when he told a group of bloggers that the demise of The Rocky Mountain News and other traditional news outlets is “mostly for the better.”
Polis later apologized for the remark, which you can read about here, but he should be even more embarrassed about a gaffe he made last weekend in Austin while addressing the Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus. After all, how could one of three openly gay members of Congress, who also happens to serve as co-chair of the LGBT congressional caucus, not be fully aware of the status of such a major piece of federal gay-rights legislation?
Polis made the gaffe in response to a question from an audience member who said he was concerned that LGBT activists in rural areas may be putting themselves at risk. The audience member, Randy Brown of Livingston, Texas, told Polis that some of his friends have already fallen victim to hate crimes.
Polis responded that if local authorities refused to investigate anti-gay hate crimes, Brown should contact federal authorities, implying that federal law includes protections against hate crimes based on sexual orientation.
Texas Stonewall President Dan Graney quickly interrupted and reminded Polis that there are no federal protections against anti-gay hate crimes. The Matthew Shepard Act, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity to federal hate crimes protections, passed both the House and Senate in 2007, but it was removed from a Defense Reauthorization bill after President Bush threatened to veto it.
Afterward, Polis told me he’d gotten confused because he knew the Shepard Act had passed Congress, and because protections against hate crimes based on sexual orientation are in place in his home state of Colorado.
Brown, meanwhile, told me he was surprised by Polis’ mistake, but glad he’d raised the issue.
“I don’t think he understands that Polk County’s not the only county in Texas or the United States where there are real, live human beings in danger,” Brown said.
I know it’s a jokey aside. But that’s a pretty unfair first line, John. The gay form of the “new media” has been all over hate crimes. If Polis is misinformed, it’s for lack of educating himself — not because the “new media” is uninformed/uninformative.
nice catch Dan!
Here is the description of hate crimes from the fbi’s own website
https://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/civilrights/overview.htm
Defining a Hate Crime
A hate crime is a traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias. For the purposes of collecting statistics, Congress has defined a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.” Hate itself is not a crime—and the FBI is mindful of protecting freedom of speech and other civil liberties.
Unless Mr. Polis specificly cited something that you don’t reference, he is entirely correct that “if local authorities refused to investigate anti-gay hate crimes, Brown should contact federal authorities.”
Here is another citation:
Public Law #103-322A, a 1994 federal law, defines a hate crime as:
“a crime in which the defendant intentionally selects a victim, or in the case of a property crime, the property that is the object of the crime, because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation of any person.” 3
source: https://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_hat3.htm
I believe that the entire premise of the article must be changed as readers could easily think that there is no federal effort to combat hate crimes today and they have no recourse. More laws like the provisions of the Shepard Act regarding hate crimes would always be nice, but Mr. Brown should contact the federal authorities as Mr. Polis indicated and not just sit back and do nothing.
Jo:
Current federal hate crimes laws that include sexual orientation apply only to FEDERAL OFFENSES and to the tracking of data. They don’t grant the FBI jurisdiction over hate crimes that are STATE OFFENSES, which means the vast majority of criminal offenses. And this is exactly what the Matthew Shepard Act would do. Your comment is totally misleading, and I hope readers will disregard it completely.
For a quick primer on hate crimes laws, go here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_crimes_in_the_United_States#Federal_prosecution_of_hate_crimes
The federal hate crimes statute that is on the books does NOT include sexual orientation and/or gender identity and expression as victims of bias-related crimes. Also, it only applies to a crime committed to deny FEDERAL rights such as voting and education. The Matthew Shepard Act would include both sexual orientation and gender identity as covered classes AND would also expand the definition of hate crimes to include state offenses against persons and property, as John states.
He should you if he is fighting for our rights…but at least he is fighting.
Did the Dallas Voice cover all LGBT murders?…and how do you pick which one you do ?
7 GAY MURDERS IN
DECEMBER 2008.
1 LGBT MURDER EVERY
9 DAYS IN 2008.
19 States Do NOT Report
LGBT MURDERS.
AND 3 LGBT MURDERS 2009.. Like Army Veteran Micheal Goucher 21, stabed over 45 times
http://www.GayAmerianHeroes.com
Thank you John,
THAT IS EXACTLY RIGHT JO:
Current federal hate crimes laws that include sexual orientation apply only to FEDERAL OFFENSES and to the tracking of data. They don’t grant the FBI jurisdiction over hate crimes that are STATE OFFENSES, which means the vast majority of criminal offenses. And this is exactly what the Matthew Shepard Act would do. Your comment is totally misleading, and I hope readers will disregard it completely.
You may want to check your sources again.
Thanks, Jeremy, for catching John’s quite snarky first line on “new media”, New media is the reason why Dallas Voice has a blog now as well.
big thanks to john wright and the dallas voice for breaking this story. i’ve blogged about it all at my site and hope to get the attention of san francisco gays to the comments made by polis.
check out my post:
https://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/2009/03/dallas-voice-gay-rep-polis-gaffe-over.html
There should be a Federal Hate crimes law on the books by now.Alabama is one of the worst states that abuses its gay citizens and inmates.Even the sherriff’s are allowed to skim off food money to put into their pockets free and clear