From: jlinder@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Jeffrey S Linder)
Subject: Re: Colorado Amendment2 Query
Organization: The Ohio State University
 Linksvayer) writes:
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 14:25:26 GMT

In regrards to hate-crimes against homosexuals: I was watching C-SPAN a
few weeks ago with some HS group presenting crime stats in Colorado since
A2 came up.  They reported that hate crimes (against gays) had increased.
A reporter asked why THREATS had been included as CRIMES.  The spokesman
said that they considered threats the same as crimes.  I, for one, was
amazed.  Talk about deception....unbelievable.  I also don't think that the
real crime counts were separated from the threats in their data, but why
should it?  They wanted data to support their position and found a way to
do it.  Another example of someone crying wolf and then crying foul when
people have already stopped listening.


>For example, from the Village Voice (12/15):
>"... Despite Maybor Webb's assurances, lesbians and gay men in Denver are
>already suffering from the new law's effects.  One 17-year-old lesbian lost
>her job when she came out to her employers days after the vote.  Another
>Denver resident was told he's no longer welcome at his doctor's, now that the
>law permits discrimination based on sexual orientation.  And attacks on
>homosexuals have doubled.  Nearly every gay or lesbian bar in the city has
>been disrupted by bigots who beat patrons in the parking lot or break the
>windows of their cars. [...]
>
>In an earlier article, you claimed:
>> Show me how
>>white, straight males have more than equal protection _before the
>>law_. I agree that straight males have advantages based on some
>>people's attitudes and customs, but I am talking about _legal_
>>advantages.
>
>In Colorado, gays and lesbians are less equal, before the law.  They
>cannot seek recourse for hate-crimes committed against them.  They
>cannot seek recourse for discrimination is public services, jobs, or
>housing.
>
Since when can't people seek recourse for crimes committed against them?
Is a hate-crime different from a crime? If so, how?

>People that murder gay men and lesbians are routinely found "not-guilty" or
>guilty of a lesser charge by many juries throughout this country.  A
>defense of "attempted seduction" by the victim toward his murderer is
>often enough for the jury to justify the action.  This type of _legal_
>discrimination is pervasive in our socity.  In Colorado, it is now
>part of their constitution.
>
Dubious claim, at best.

>Scott Safier                                   corwin+@cmu.edu
>Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
>
>member, T.S.A.K.C.  B0/1 f+ w- g k+ s- m(+) e++
>
>"We do not have an anti-gay policy... The problems Boy Scouts are
>having are with people trying to get in - the gay community, the
>homosexuals, the atheists."
>Burford Hill, Western Regional Director, Boy Scouts of America.
>5 June 1992, San Francisco Chronicle

>
>"We don't necessarily discriminate.  We simply exclude certain types of
>people."
>   Lt. Col. Gerald Wellman, an ROTC instructor at the MIT,
>   on the military's ban on gays
>   Newsweek, May 25
>

JSL.
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