The death penalty is not provided for. Remarkably, this attempt is being made during the very week in which a civil trial got underway that will determine the liability of the Federal Government in the Waco, Texas Branch Davidian disaster. One would think that there might be some reluctance about giving Janet Reno's Justice Department more power and more discretion to prosecute crimes. A majority of the States do not now cover sexual orientation in hate-crimes laws, and the Kennedy amendment would overturn those deliberate policies. Of all the concerns about including sexual orientation in a Federal hate-crimes law, perhaps none is more important than the tendency of Senator Kennedy and others to confuse the moral status of sexual orientation and race.
Sexual orientation is perhaps the most profound of human behavioral characteristics.
The linking of gay rights and the civil rights movement got a mixed reaction in the African-American community. The Congressional Black Caucus favored removing the ban on homosexuals in the armed services. I heard from black clergymen who adamantly opposed removing the ban. . . . The Kennedy amendment is going to create vast problems for sex crimes. If enacted, this provision is going to entwine the Federal Government in difficult and controversial and possibly numerous problems.