| The great State of Oklahoma has eliminated hate crimes protections for race and religion. Yes you read that correctly. You can go to Oklahoma and harm a person because of their race or religion and NOT face a Hate Crimes attachment to your assault charge (not that I advocate assaulting anyone for any reason).
The reason this is of interest is that Oklahoma was TRYING to eliminate the protections of gays and lesbians and they screwed up.
Last week there were multiple reports about the Oklahoma State Senate passing legislation which would exempt that state from enforcing the recently enacted federal hate crimes act that includes sexual orientation and gender identity. However, now it turns that there was "a legislative error" and instead of exempting Oklahoma from enforcing hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity, they eliminated protections based on race and religion instead:
Oklahoma State Senate Minority Leader Andrew Rice, D-Oklahoma City, said when the Senate passed Senate Bill 1965 on March 10, it eliminated hate crime protections for race and religion.
The bill states local law enforcement agencies should not enforce any sections of federal law under hate crimes statutes listed under Title 18 U.S. Code Section 245 unless they are in correlation with Oklahoma's hate crimes laws.
But the protections for sexual orientation and gender identity in the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act, which passed Congress last year, are not listed under Section 245, but Section 249
"The bill in its current form doesn't take away rights from gays and lesbians," Rice said. "It takes away rights for religion and race."
Once again the poor state of Oklahoma is a laughing stock. First Sally Kern, now this.
And so I have to ask once again, what is going on in Oklahoma?
We gay folks must be terrible because so many people are afraid of us...I never thought of myself as 'terror-inspiring'....clearly it's time to reassess my personal terror index. Grrrr ;) |
