AMERICAN FAMILY ASSOCIATION OF PENNSYLVANIA
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PENNSYLVANIA HATE CRIMES --HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER JOHN PERZEL GIVES INTO PRESSURE FROM GAY ACTIVISTS AND WILL BRING THE BILL TO A VOTE!!! CONTACT HIM AND YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVE -- SEE BELOW
"TWELVE REASONS TO VOTE 'NO' ON H.B. 1493"
Some History:
In the wee hours of June 22, 2001 the Pennsylvania Senate passed hate crimes legislation by a vote of 32 to 15. This amended the state's Ethnic Intimidation Act to include 'actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity.' Since that time gay activists have been pushing for the State House to pass similar legislation so the bill could be presented to the governor for his signature.
This bill is H.B. 1493 which formally had been an agricultural vandalism bill. The bill has been hijacked and completely gutted of any wording about agriculture and farming activity. We now have a bill with the same number as the original bill, but a completely different meaning -- many legislators may not know of this change and think they are casting a vote concerning agricultural vandalism.
Here are a few reasons why we don't need hate crimes laws in Pennsylvania:
1.) Such legislation would give individuals special rights simply because of the sexual activity they engage in.
2.) There is no epidemic of hate crimes as gay activists are saying. In PA from July 1, 2000 to June 30, 2001 there were 382 bias-related incidences, of those 19 were against gays and lesbians.
3.) Earlier this year the 2001 report from The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Against Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgenders was released. Out of PA's population of 12, 281, 000 there were only 81 incidences of harassment and 12 physical assaults on persons in the gay community. The assaults were tragic, but no reason for hate crimes legislation. In fact, data from law enforcement agencies and homosexual activists themselves indicates the risk of domestic violence at the hands of their own sex partners is a staggering 50,000 percent greater for individuals involved in homosexual behavior than the risk of being attacked by someone allegedly motivated by disapproval of their lifestyle.
4.) Openly gay congressman Barney Frank has opposed adding the phrase "gender identity" to federal legislation because he knows radical transgenders will demand that men who think they are women be allowed to use the women's restrooms and showers in the work place. Frank said "There are workplace situations -- communal showers, for example -- when the demands of the transgender community fly in the face of conventional norms and therefore would not pass in any Congress. I've talked with transgender activists and what they want -- and what we will be forced to defend -- is for people with penises who identify as women to be able to shower with other women. There are no votes for that. And if that is the price of this bill, it is wrong."
Rep. Barney Frank's quote documented
The whole notion of hate crimes politicizes the law and creates fights along racial and sexual lines according to sociologists James Jacobs and Kimberly Potter, authors of Hate Crimes: Criminal Law and Identity Politics (Oxford University Press, 1998).
"Even labeling or refusing to label hate crimes has become a divisive issue for communities," Jacobs and Potter wrote. "Crime ought to be a problem that brings together all Americans. However bias-crime laws. . . redefine crime as one more arena for intergroup conflict."
Gay author Andrew Sullivan noted in the April 2, 2001 edition of the New Republic the vast difference in media coverage of two murders: that of homosexual Matthew Shepard, covered in 3,007 stories in the month after the killing, and that of 13-year-old Jesse Dirkhising - raped and killed by a homosexual couple in 1998 - mentioned in only 46 stories in the following month.
"This discrepancy isn't just real," Sullivan wrote. "It's staggering . . . What we are seeing, I fear, is a logical consequence of the culture that hate-crimes rhetoric promotes. Some deaths - if they affect a politically protected class - are worth more than other. Other deaths, that do not fit a politically correct profile, are left to oblivion."
And that's exactly what hate crimes laws do. They create stiffer penalties for the murder or assault of a homosexual than the murder or assault of a 7-year-old girl or a grandmother.
Unfortunately, House Majority Leader John Perzel has given into gay activists and said he will bring H.B. 1493 out of committee and to the floor for a vote after the November 5 election and before the session recesses on November 28.
Please contact Representative Perzel and tell him of the dangers of bringing this bill to a vote. Pennsylvania does not need to give homosexuals special protection through the passage of this bill.
E-Mail House Majority Leader John Perzel or call at 1.717.787.2016. Better yet contact him, your state representative and the Governor and do it often. You can take my word for it, gay activists will be!!
CONTACT YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVE. CLICK HERE FOR CONTACT INFORMATION.
CONTACT GOVERNOR MARK SCHWEIKER AND ASK HIM NOT TO SIGN
H.B. 1493, THE HATE CRIMES BILL. His number is 717.787.2500
or E-mail
the Governor
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