There was a shooting tonight outside the home of Siegfried & Roy which was originally labeled a hate crime. Apparently the shooter “fired four shotgun blasts from a white van and shouted that the former Siegfried & Roy stars should get out of the country.” According to a witness the exact words were “We need to get these ‘expletive’ Siegfried and Roy out of our country.”
The crime was later said to be miscategorized. Hate crimes are apparently for “cases where race, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation is a factor.”
Uh, ok, well let’s just ask this question, hypothetically. What does one do in the case that homosexuals are closeted, are celebrities, and have felt their whole lives that being outed might ruin their careers because their staple audience, ala Liberace, does not or does not want to know that they are gay?
Now I’m not saying that Siegfried and Roy are any of these things…I’m just askin’. Is it a hate crime or is it just assumed that the shooter has something against white tigers?
Is a hate crime a hate crime when the hated deny that they’re hated?
Does a tree falling in the forest make a sound if no one is there to hear it?