Posts Written by

An Open Letter to My Feministing Friends: SING LOUD!

Dear Friends,

I am a long time reader, but have never posted. I felt the need to post today.

This morning I was deeply disturbed by an email that I received from my husband’s grandfather claiming that S909 The Matthew Sheppard Hate Crimes Act is a bill that will offer federal protection to pedophiles. Yup, that’s what he said, protecting pedophiles. Nevermind that nowhere in this bill does it negate, ya know, the crime of pedophilia. But….let’s move on. *sigh*

Disturbed by the rhetoric in the email and the weight of the hatred that emanated from it, I decided to go find the text of the bill and find out exactly where they are pulling this INSANE position from. Here ya go:

(1) The incidence of violence motivated by the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of the victim poses a serious national problem.

Apparently, where the folks who want to see this defeated are taking issue with the words “sexual orientation” because there is no “definition” of such in this legislation. We all know where they have gone with that.

Secondly, they are all ranting about how this will lead to persecution of “speech” and “thought-crimes.” There is nothing in here that talks about inhibiting the freedom of speech. It is talking about federal protection and funds for prosecuting VIOLENT CRIMES. The allowances they are taking here, and flat out lies being ...