Hate Crime Laws and Sexual Orientation

Hate crime laws have been adopted on the federal and state level that increases the penalties for crimes committed when the motivation by the race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, or disability of the victim.

There are several controversial issues surrounding hate crime legislation, including questions about freedom of speech violations, but the most hotly debated issues have arisen from the inclusion in the laws of the term "sexual orientation."

The federal hate crime laws do include the term "sexual orientation." As of July 2004, seven states have no hate crime laws at all, 20 states have hate crime laws that do not protect sexual orientation, and 24 states have hate crime laws that do include sexual orientation. In 2002, 12,073 law enforcement agencies reported 7,462 hate crime incidents, according to the FBI Hate Crime Statistics 2002.

There has been very little controversy over the adoption of laws increasing the penalty for crimes against victims because of their age, gender or disability, but adding "sexual orientation" to the list of groups protected by hate crime laws has produced much controversy. Conservative Christian groups have become active in opposing laws they believe will prohibit their ability to teach, preach or speak out against homosexuality.

The Traditional Values Coalition for example, believes hate crime laws "violate the free speech rights of Christians and others who oppose homosexuality on moral grounds. This is a direct attack against the First Amendment and freedom of religion."

According to the People for the American Way, however, hate crimes do not address thought and speech. They write, "Only crimes can become hate crimes. That is, some criminal act -- assault, murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault, etc. must happen first. Only then can the crime be considered a criminal act."