Hate Crimes Expansion Bill Dies
By Mike Soraqhan
Denver Post
Capitol Bureau
Jan. 27 - Sen. Dorothy Rupert says the reason she can't get the state to include disability and age in its hate-crime law is because she also wants it to cover gays and lesbians.
"Disability and age are being held hostage," the Boulder Democrat told the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday. "If we would take out sexual orientation, this bill would have been out of here six years ago."
The committee defeated the bill Wednesday on a 4-4 vote. That effectively ends the hate-crime discussion for another year. An identical bill is moving through the House, but it most likely would go to the same committee in the Senate and meet the same fate.
The state already has a hate-crime law, but it is called "ethnic intimidation" and covers only crimes committed because of bias based on race, religion or ethnicity.
Conservative Republicans said Rupert's proposal amounts to creating special protection for a specific group of people.
"It may make a certain segment of the population feel better," said Sen. John Evans, R-Parker. "It does nothing to deter the bad people from doing things like this." Rupert replied she could make the same argument on the death penalty.
Supporters of the bill said crimes like "gay-bashing" are a special breed of crimes, intended not only to harm the victim, but also to send a message to his or her community that they are hated.
"All crimes are not created equal," LoriAnn Girvan, executive director of the gay-rights group Equality Colorado, told the committee. "This is not a special rights bill."
Voting for the bill were Sens. Ed Perlmutter, D-Golden; Rupert; Bill Thiebaut, D-Pueblo; and Dottie Wham, R-Denver. Voting against were Sens. John Andrews, R-Englewood; Ken Arnold, R-Westminster; Mary Ellen Epps, R-Colorado Springs; and Evans.
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