Equal justice for all

Dear Congressman,

Laws already exist that make it wrong to conduct violence against anyone. It is unnecessary and harmful to create special classes of people against whom it is "more of a crime". Violence against anyone is already wrong and it would be better to enforce the laws that already exist than create new ones.

I urge you to oppose the Defense Appropriations bill if the "hate crimes" language is not removed. Laws already exist in all 50 states to punish violent crime, making the "hate crimes" language unnecessary, unfair, indefinable, un-American and constitutionally suspect. The "hate crimes" language in this bill is not designed to aid in fighting crime. The reality is that the purpose of this language is to silence those who speak out against homosexuality.

Everywhere hate crimes laws have gone into effect, they have been quickly used to intimidate, silence and punish people of faith who express deeply held religious objections to the normalization of homosexuality.

Such laws not only punish officially disapproved speech and thought, they create two tiers of victims. Under hate crimes laws, some victims get more protections than others, which violates the fundamental American principle of equality under the law.

In fact, such laws actively discriminate against heterosexual Christians who are victims of crime, since they will get less legal protection than homosexual victims.

And since "sexual orientation" is nowhere defined in the legislation, this law will give pedophiles, voyeurs, and exhibitionists special protections, which is why the bill has correctly been called "The Pedophile Protection Act."