From: HADCRJAM@admin.uh.edu (MILLER, JIMMY A.)
Subject: Re: Sad Day for Liberty
Organization: University of Houston Administrative Computing
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 15:12:27 GMT
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.20

In <1992Nov6.081944.2669@leland.Stanford.EDU> farthing@leland.Stanford.EDU writes:

> In article <1992Nov4.204156.29353@menudo.uh.edu> HADCRJAM@admin.uh.edu (MILLER, JIMMY A.) writes:
> >
> >  Gays and lesbians deserve protection.  Heterosexual white males deserve
> >protection.  Jewish Afro-Italians deserve protection.  Why single out a 
> >particular group?  The Constitution as is should serve to protect ALL indi-
> >viduals.  The problem lies not in the law, but how it is applied -- a fault
> >which would not be repaired by more legislation.
> 
> You know, this sounds good, but...
> 
> Cracker Barrel, a restaurant chain in the Southeast, fired men and
> women simply because they're gay or lesbian.  How would a state law
> which says that it's illegal to discriminate on the basis of sexual
> orientation hurt straights?

  Well, first off such laws *don't* hurt straights.  At least I don't think so.
Cracker Barrel should be sued within an inch of its corporate life -- sexual
orientation has no bearing on job performance.  As for new laws, one would 
think the "penumbra" of or the right to privacy which the Supreme Court has
found would do quite nicely.

  I certainly have NO problem with the intent of such laws -- just the prec-
edent of group-specific legislation.

> >  There is no doubt that people are killed for their beliefs/sexual orientation
> >or what have you.  I simply fail to see how giving some group special status
> >is going to help things out at all.  Violence against people, for whatever
> >reasons, should be treated the same, regardless of thier group affiliations.
> >Why do they get special treatment?  Why do non-special groups get left out?
> 
> I think the belief is that if your color, sexual orientation, whatever
> make you a more likely target for violence, the hate laws may just
> reduce that likelihood.  Unfortunately, laws against hate crimes are
> often the easiest way to get police and DAs to work for victims.

  I am unaware that *any* laws against violent acts such as assualt or murder
have ever done diddly to prevent them.  Also, a law enforcement group unwilling
to help a gay/whatever person out is not likely to suddenly become ultra-con-
cerned becausde the law tells 'em to be so.  The problem is attitudes, not
laws (generally speaking, of course).  Somehow I think a "hate crime" law
would just result in uncaring individuals going through the motions.

  But hate crime laws bother me less than other types of legislation.

> >  I do not support special treatment for groups simply because they feel 
> >oppressed (and yes, often the oppresion is real).  ALL people *deserve* EQUAL
> >protection and opportunity.  I support the removal of restrictive laws 
> >(whites only, gays in the military) but not the imposition of presciptive 
> >ones (20% minority involvment required).  We cannot create a color-gender-
> >sexual orientation-blind society by creating laws and practices that *high-
> >light* those differences.
> 
> Laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation,
> color, religion, etc. are not AA.  I've yet to hear of one law that
> suggests that there should be quotas for lesbigay people.

  Ooops.  Your knee-jerk reaction got tangled up in my knee-jerk reaction.  I
did not mean to imply I felt that specific anti-discrimination would or did
involve quotas.  It was simply an example of specific law, my apologies.

  Discrimination on *any* basis (aside from maybe an abrasive personality :-))
should be (already) unconstitutional.  Without requiring *new* laws, just the 
ditching of old bad ones.  Except maybe a Constitutional amendment explicitly
defining the right to privacy -- that oughta cut out a lot of this shit we 
see.


semper fi,

Jammer Jim Miller 
Texas A&M University '89 and '91
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