Nevada Senate approves two LGBT protections bills, rejects a thirdI am disappointed in that they didn’t pass the hate crime law, especially in light of the beating that the trans-woman received in the McDoanld’s outside of Baltimore.
LGBTQ Nation
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
The Nevada Senate on Monday approved two bills that would prohibit discrimination against gays and transgender individuals in housing and public accommodations, but rejected a third bill that would have added gender identity and expression to Nevada’s hate crimes law.
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The other two measures, however, were approved: SB331 prohibits discrimination against gays and transsexuals in places of public accommodation including hotels, motels and restaurants, and SB368 prohibits discrimination in housing and other real property transactions.
Some people argue that there should be no special crime for hate, that an assault is an assault. But I’ll argue that it is based on motive and we take into account motive on other crimes. Murder, has different degrees based on motive. If you push someone during an argument and they fall over and die, that is one type of murder. In a fight, you grab a broken beer bottle and kill someone, that is a second type of murder. If in a fight you go out to your car and get a gun, come back inside and shot a person, that is the strongest type of murder. So it is based on your motive, the first case you had no intent on killing a person, the second case you should have known your actions could result in death and the last case was premeditated. The same is true of a hate crime, an assault is not just an assault if the motive is bias or hatred, then and only then does it becomes a hate crime. A person can beat up a trans-woman and it is not a hate crime, (i.e. a mugger beats up a trans-woman to rob her, which is not a hate crime). However, what happened down in Baltimore was a hate crime because in the video you can hear the woman use sexual slurs while she is beating up on the trans-woman.
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