Why Don’t They Get It?

Is it only because it is about gender identity or are they just dense?

In Nevada the Assembly passed a hate crime bill which has already passed the Senate, the bill added gender identity and expression to the current law.

The Elko Daily Free Press’s AP article says,

CARSON CITY(AP) — Nevada lawmakers made a strong statement Tuesday, passing a bill that says crimes motivated by hatred of transgender people will not be tolerated in the Silver State.

The Assembly passed the measure on a 30-11 vote with only Republicans opposed. The bill already cleared the Senate and now heads to Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval.

The bill now goes on to the governor to sign and I think he will sign it.

What gets me is that some of the arguments against the bill were,

Crimes should be punished based on the action, not the reason, Assemblyman Ira Hansen, R-Sparks, argued to his colleagues.
[…]
He added an attack on a woman because of her gender is not protected the same as if the attacker thought she was a lesbian.

Assemblyman Hansen must believe that if you murder someone it is all the same whether your plan it out beforehand or if it is an accident. According to his reasoning that if you are in an argument with someone and in the heat of the argument you pull out a knife to stab the person to death. Same action but a different intent and that calls for a different punishment. The law takes into consideration intent; however, Assemblyman Hansen doesn’t seem to think intent is important when it comes to trans-people.

A hate crime is when the attacker specifically attacks a victim because who they are. It is different than an ordinary assault in that it intimidates not only victim but all the people of that community. The attach on Matthew Shepard not only resulted in his death but it intimidated the LGBT community.

GLAD has a good webpage on the Connecticut Hate Crime law.