09/27/2007

Senate Roll Call on Hate Crimes Legislation

See how they voted here.

Idaho Senator Larry ("I'm not gay") Craig was a "Nay".

Arizona Senator John McCain was the only lawmaker who didn't vote.

Posted 1:25 PM EST by Andy in Crime, News | Permalink

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Comments

1. Big surprise about Craig. The man would do anything to suppress his true feelings, while punishing those he's trying desperately not to "become". Sorry Larry, you are a 'mo.

   Posted by: Tread | Sep 27, 2007 1:38:45 PM

   
   

2. Anyone else see the sick IRONY in how the two senators from the "great" state of WY both voted "nay"?

   They must have forgotten about that whole Matthew Shephard thing.

   Posted by: David J | Sep 27, 2007 1:39:52 PM

   
   

3. Sickening.

   Posted by: Rad | Sep 27, 2007 2:00:39 PM

   
   

4. You're surprised about Wyoming? It's not like it's become a liberal hotbed since Matthew Craig.

   At least it passed. Given that Virginia conservative John Warner voted for it, the nay-voting Republicans just look like dickheads.

   Posted by: Paul | Sep 27, 2007 5:11:37 PM

   
   

5. What's the difference between a murder that occurs because a guy catches his girlfriend in bed with another guy or someone killing a guy because he is gay. It's both murder and both should be considered the same. "Hate crimes" are subjective but murder is objective. People should not be legislated how to feel but how to act. I vote Nay.

   Posted by: John | Sep 27, 2007 6:06:41 PM

   
   

6. For hopefully soon-to-be Ex-Sen. Larry Craig to vote NO after what he went thru by being called gay is so assenine. He is so stupid. He says he is not gay but even "his" children are not even his, are his wife from her first marriage. He is so suspect he is already guilty.

   Posted by: Oscar | Sep 27, 2007 6:24:21 PM

   
   

7. Paul seems to think that there is no difference between murders that are the result of a witch hunt and murders that are crimes of passion, committed in the moment.

   I submit that there is a difference. In the United States, people have been hunted like animals and murdered for being gay many times in recent history. Typically, a group of guys has hunted down another guy, singled him out, and cut him down, to the tacit approval of much of society, and these things have occurred frequently within the past 50 to 70 years, within the memories of my living relatives. The societal approval is quiet, but the murder is not...or if the man is lucky, he simply gets badly beaten.

   People who live in urban areas may not be aware of how much rural America has condoned this practice and made it part of their lives: it is simply a piece of the fabric of rural existence. It is not considered wrong by many, if not most, of the old timers to commit such hate crimes, and these crimes often simply go unpunished. Right now there is a vicious (hate crime) murderer in South Dakota whom the Republican governor has pardoned, and the criminal will not serve his sentence.

   The act of being hunted down and attacked with baseball bats, tire irons, and guns in premeditated fashion is a world of difference from a guy finding his girlfriend in bed with another man. Passing a hate crimes bill would not make the second murder less punishable, it would simply address the gulf that exists between tacit approval by society's turning a blind eye and the nature of the vicious hate crimes that take place.

   It is the act of hunting down gays because they are gay that makes these crimes different. This "sport" has been accepted, and even welcomed, historically, and young men who practice it are rewarded, perhaps not publicly now, in modern history, but privately.

   Treating gays like animals and hunting or beating them down: considering them subhuman, something that society needs to get rid of, is a different sort of crime than other murders or assaults. It is simply a different quality that marks this crime. I do not believe that treatment of hate crimes as such lessens other crimes. It highlights hate crimes for what they are.

   Posted by: Jeffery | Oct 1, 2007 4:35:46 PM

   
   

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