McAffrey proposes adding sexual orientation and gender to hate crimes law

Wed, Dec 5th 2007, 15:39
Protesters urge action

By Devona Walker
Staff Writer

The campaign to pass the Matthew Shepard Act, federal hate crime legislation, has arrived in the Sooner State after the strangling death of Steven Domer.

"I think it's horrible that someone had to die to get this issue recognized,” said Mike Dearmond, 45, a gay man who attended a candlelight vigil Tuesday night in Oklahoma City with about 50 other city residents to protest Domer's death and show solidarity for state and federal hate crime legislation.

"How many gays have to die before somebody does something about it? What's that number?”

Domer, 62, was last seen alive with two men Oct. 26 at a car wash near the city's gay bar district.

Darrell Madden, the self-proclaimed general of a skinhead gang, has been charged with murder. Authorities believe Domer was killed as part of a rite of passage ritual within the skinhead gang.

Madden was not charged with a hate crime. In Oklahoma, as well as 16 other states, gay people are not protected in the hate crime statutes. The Oklahoma statute only applies to misdemeanor vandalism and battery charges.

The Matthew Shepard Act would include gender and sexual orientation as protected classes of people. It would provide protection for gay people nationwide. It would also provide resources to state law enforcement to investigate hate-based crimes.

It passed last spring in the House and Senate with bipartisan support. President Bush has indicated he will veto the legislation. Bush has said it is unnecessary.

Harry Knox, spokesman for the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign, said Tuesday afternoon at an Oklahoma City church that momentum for the act had begun to stall.

The death of Steven Domer, the 62-year-old Edmond resident, breathed life back into the national push.

"We realized that people are losing their lives while we wait,” Knox said.

"This is the only way we can get it done. And we feel the time is now.”

Backers of the act have attached it to a military spending bill to increase its chances. Opponents have called the move deplorable. Advocates said it was the only way to get it done.

Civil rights problem feared
"Any hate crime law would be totally unnecessary and extraneous,” said Matt Barber, a spokesman for Concerned Women for America, the largest women's public policy organization in the nation, a group that considers homosexuality immoral. "Frankly all violence is a hate crime. It shouldn't matter what was in their minds.”

Conservative Christian groups oppose hate crime legislation because they say it infringes upon their civil rights. In one instance, Barber spoke about the likelihood that Christians protesting a gay pride parade could be considered guilty of a hate crime. He said federal hate crime legislation would "give homosexuals special protections.”

FBI statistics show an increase in hate crimes of about 8 percent in 2006. More than half the victims were targeted because of race; about 15 percent were targeted because of sexual orientation.

"There were plenty of warning signs. We have helped create an environment of intolerance ... that licenses this behavior,” said Richard Ogden, chairman of the Cimarron Alliance, a statewide gay rights education and advocacy group. "We as a community have to accept responsibility for this.”

Ogden spoke of another man who was murdered 10 years ago close to where Domer disappeared. He said most hate crimes against gay people involve assaults, which are frequently not reported.

One reason for having a hate crime law is to encourage gay people to report crime. The other is to discourage crime, Ogden said.

"We know the lessons of life and the time has come for change,” Ogden added.

Several speakers spoke Tuesday in support of the Matthew Shepard Act, including Baptist preacher Greg Young, the Rev. Loyce Newton-Edwards, assistant pastor of the Church of the Open Arms, and state Rep. Al McAffrey, who is in the process of drafting legislation that would include protections for gay people.

They spoke out against a constitutional amendment forbidding gays from marriage, additional measures in the state denying domestic partner benefits and civil unions in the state, and the more recent effort to not recognize gay adoptions from other states.

"It's this environment that gives them the license to do this,” Ogden said.

Keri Mead attended the vigil with her two young children.

"We're here to show support and try to put an end to this,” Mead said.