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Opinion 
Our View
New Strategies for a Hate Crime Law
The news coming out from a consortium of groups seeking to advance another hate crime bill in the Utah legislature early next year is that a new bill will be drafted that doesn’t include “The List.”
“The List” is widely recognized as why past bills haven’t been able to get the stamp of approval from the legislature to replace our 13-year-old unenforceable law. “The List” is the delineation of what groups are most commonly targeted in hate crimes: “race, color, disability, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, age and gender.”
Perhaps most importantly, “The Words” are the greatest stumbling block. “The Words” “sexual orientation” appear nowhere in the Utah Code or Constitution. Passing a hate crime law with “The Words” would forever codify gay and lesbian people as a protected class. Over Gayle’s dead body.
To their credit, even though some people from groups in “The List” have advocated for the removal of “The Words” in order to get a bill passed, it has never yet been done.
We think that those with the eye on the real prize—equal rights for everyone—recognize that if anyone in this country is not free then none of us are free.
But now, this year’s perennial bill has a new slant. One which, at first blush, sounds quite like what we currently have; quite like what the Georgia Supreme Court held as unconstitutionally vague in its own version.
While we reserve judgment on the bill since it has yet to be drafted, we do feel the need to respond to the political balloon that has been launched.
Should this bill be a rewrite of our existing law that will be as unenforceable as it is today, then don’t waste our time and energy.
We must learn from the failings of Utah’s and Georgia’s laws. We must write legislation that gives prosecutors a tool that can be used against those who single out their victims because they are black, or Jewish, or gay, or Mormon, because all blacks and Jews and gays and Mormons are attacked when that happens.
We must also learn from the failings of nine previous attempts to pass hate crime bills through this legislature. The old way doesn’t work. Find a new one. Sending out last-minute pleas to fill the chambers during debates doesn’t work. Calling and sending emails to legislators who don’t represent you doesn’t work. In fact, these tactics only further polarize the issue.
The loss of Salt Lake County Councilman Mark Crockett’s vote on domestic partner benefits should be a learning experience for us. After receiving an email from an out-of-stater thanking him for extending benefits to gay couples and “bringing us one step closer to equal marriage rights,” he was spooked to the other side. A pivotal swing vote lost to a well-intended but bad strategy.
We live in a different world than we did 13 years ago. We must learn how to succeed in this new world or lose everything we have gained.
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