Homosexuality + Hate Crimes

[Peter]

Hate crime legislation is generally a farce in my opinion. It really should be left up to Judges to decide what the aggravating factors of a case are - if there is an element of baseless hate involved in the commission of the crime, then the common sense of the Judge will cause him to increase the sentence - he doesn't need a piece of statute to tell him to exercise his common sense.

If you spray paint nazi symbols all over a synagogue you should definitely get more time than if you spray painted anarchist symbols, because clearly the symbols are sprayed out of hate and are meant to intimidate Jews - again the common sense of a Judge should prevail in these cases and he should be able to increase the sentence, but not be forced to by staute.

Trying to statute ever aggravating circumstance that could exist is a joke in my opinion, better to say something like:

Murder is against the law; The Judge may take account of any aggravating and mitigating circumstances in deciding upon the sentence. Heres some recommended sentence for the average murder. Go use your common sense.

As long as hate crimes stay on the statute books though, homosexuality should be one of the aspects covered by the laws.

[Peter]

Yes/No... like if someone goes and writes "Kill the Fags"(sorry but getting point across) then yes. But if someone hold up a sign saying Homosexuals will go to Hell for their sin. No because that is their right.

Writing that is a crime because it is obviously an incitement to commit a crime, the later is not an incitement and is just an opinion, obviously protected under the First.

To all those who are using the example of killing a man you caught sleeping with your wife:

Depending upon the circumstances, a good lawyer could probably get you manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility (or whatever the US equivalent is), especially if you actually caught them at it, as given the circumstances, its reasonable that you'd be rather irate and therefore not fully responsible for your actions.