Take Action against Hate Crimes

Take action at http://www.hrc.org/FightHate after you watch this message about the need for hate crimes laws, produced by the Human Rights Campaign for Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Tour.

• Category

  News & Politics

[JohnPaul Dixon]

WhatI find unconscionable is that even now in the 21st century there is STILL the need to fight for legislation to protect people who're attacked/abused/murdered because of sexual orientation/race etc.It should already be enshrined in law! In Queensland,Australia for instance someone who's facing prosecution on an assault or murder charge against a gay victim can still legally cite 'gay panic' as a defence! This is just wrong on any level.It negates the worth of the victim! It MUST stop,NOW!

[rita king]

and iam going to vote for president obama too.to each his own.

[rita king]

my son was in afghanstan.his squad was in a village where there was no law.A little girl did not want to cover her face.he said her father took his daughter and dipped her down in scaling hot water.the 8 year old had 3rd degree burns.my son wanted to kill him.his squad stopped him.saying the dad was the bread winner.if he killed him.the family couldnt survive.my son cryed and told them let me cut his dick off or something.they would not let him.they treat their kids like shit.!

[rita king]

lets take all the haters the black,white,homophobic,and anyone else who is a hater.put them on a large island to hate each other and leave the rest of us alone.there was a woman who lived next door to us growing up.I donot know why she hated us.she was black and we were black.if we spoke to her she would say i hope you get hit by a car.our aunts told us to pay her no mind.she grew old alone and got sick.she never spoke to my aunt in 25 yrs.my aunt went and took care of her until she died.

[James Brown]

I think all crimes where the person did nothing to deserve it are equal. If a man walks down the street and gets beaten or killed when he did nothing to provoke it, that's terrible. I think the other person's reasoning, whether he just chose a random person or did it for race or whatever, doesn't make it any better or worse.

I think the killing of a person because he's gay, black, whatver is horrible, but so is killing a person at random.

[James Brown]

Alright, but for cases of murder (at least highest degree murder) isn't the penalty either death or life in prison? What could they possibly add to that?

[anotherhappyguy]

This adds more charges to a murder if the attack is motivated by homophobia. Often people who commit a hate crime claim "Gay Panic" which is basically saying they were terrified that a gay person would make a pass at them they couldn't think straight and they killed someone. Shockingly this defense has worked.

[James Brown]

OK, here's what I don't get, what law are they passing?

I mean, isn't killing someone already against the law? Why are they passing a new one?

[bushit123456]

Where Obama got in this discussion?