Skeptical about hate
crimes legislation

BY JEANNE E. HAND-BONIAKOWSKI

Some of the best coalition-
building civil rights history has
been made in recent years. The
catalyst and rallying point is
hate crime legislation. Finally,
large, established civil rights
organizations, such as the Anti-
Defamation League, the
Southern Poverty Law Center,
Human Rights Campaign, the
NAACP, and the National Gay
and Lesbian Task Force are
coalescing around the need for
a response to the increasing
prevalence of hate crimes, with
a huge campaign for the feder-
al Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

Then why am I so chilled?

The cry for “something” to
be done is born of fear, anger,
and the knowledge that we are
often attacked because we are
gay, or Black, or Latino/a, or
disabled, or female, or Jewish.

‘ I, too, cry out for effective

response. But I’m skeptical
that legislation is the best
focus. And I’m certain the cur-
rent crop of hate crimes laws
are not.

Sentence enhancement is
the cornerstone of these laws.

— It means that if a crime — graf-

fiti, vandalism, assault,
manslaughter, murder — is
committed, and it is estab-
lished that the victim was cho-
sen as a member of a target
group, judges must increase
the final sentence. Sentencing
enhancements are said to be
appropriate because hate
crimes have many victims — a
terrorized community — there-
fore deserve harsher penalties.

Also there is a perceived
value in the symbolic factor:
these laws send a message to
the entire society that prejudice
is abhorred, that we value tol-
erance and diversity. But this is
symbolism with cynicism. It is
convenient for politicians to
support such laws, to appear to
care about marginalized peo-
ple. But if actual concern were

equal to the rhetoric, why not
more substantial laws that
would make a real difference
in our lives? Why have HCPA,
but watch ENDA and ERA lan-
guish or die? Why do we have
to fight so hard for livable
income, prescription drug fair-
ness, and the right to marry?
Why can’t we get such basic
rights? How about funding for
community centers, safe
spaces, restorative justice, and
universal design?

Part of the campaign is to
add sexual orientation, disabil-
ity, and gender to existing
statutes that already name race,
religion, and ethnicity. I don’t
think adding categories makes
a bad law good, although
efforts toward inclusiveness
can extend to other organizing.
Hate crimes laws are a feel-
good coalition builder at best.
They can be a divisive distrac-
tion as groups argue a hierar-
chy of oppressions, and at
worst, will exacerbate the very
thing they are meant to allevi-
ate.

Adding time to already
shockingly punitive sentences
is answering brutality with
brutality. What better place to
learn racism, sexism, and
homophobia than in a U.S. jail
or prison? The human cages in
this country are so horrific that
Amnesty international and
Human Rights Watch have tar-
geted them with anti-torture
campaigns. We have the world
record number of people in
cages, and with 12 million
incarcerated each year, there
are hundreds of thousands
released each month. Many of
them have been so regressed
and damaged by this cruel sys-
tem that they are far more dan-
gerous than when they went in.
Post-traumatic stress disorder
is epidemic among cons and
ex-cons, much of it because of
serial rape.

September 2000 | Out in the Mountains [9
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We must not dehumanize
those who dehumanize us. To
picture hate crimes offenders
as monsters and predators
makes it easier to lock them
away. But these are our fellow
citizens: our neighbors, co-
workers, family members. If a
young man is imprisoned for
breaking your windows and
painting “Kill Fags” on the
walls, does the punishment fit
the crime? He is likely to be
raped, not once, but several
times a week through his entire
sentence. He may lose his right
to vote, permanently. (Vermont
does not strip prisoners or ex-
cons of the franchise, but many
states do.)

He will be caged and brutal-
ized for months or years in this
misnamed “corrections” sys-
tem. And then, if he hasn’t
killed himself, he will be
released. Does this make any-
one safer?

Vengeance does not equal

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justice. To stereotype “white

trash boys like Aaron
McKinney and Russell
Henderson” (Matthew

Shepherd’s killers), or “red-
neck racists like John William
King” (James Byrd’s killer) is
to continue the violence.
Aaron, Russell, and John are
also victims, with various his-
tories of child abuse, rape,
imprisonment, assault, and
poverty, damaging them body
and mind. Violence has bred
violence in these men, "and in
millions of others. Hate crimes
laws do nothing to break this
cycle, and promise to perpetu-
ate it.

‘There is no evidence that
enhanced sentencing will pre-
vent hate crimes. The death
penalty and the war on (some)
drugs are famous examples of
the lack of deterrent effect of
even extreme penalties.

While the persistence and
pervasiveness of prejudice is

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deep within the national cul-
ture, hate crimes are local. And
the effective responses and
preventives are also local. Yet
queer money is bulking up the
national organizations focused
on hate crimes legislation,
while community programs do
the real work with scarce
funds.

These bills are an easy sell,
and they are sold with emo-
tional slogans. But politics by
sound bite often bites the hand
that feeds it. Where is the
analysis, the perspective?
Jumping in bed with the law
and order beast makes for very
strange bedfellows indeed. The
history of queer struggle and
most civil rights struggle has
been against this authoritarian
creature, and for good reason.
For hundreds of years, we have
been the targets of state repres-
sion. The criminal (in)justice

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