COLOMBIA – A bill to increase penalties for hate crimes was introduced by a South Carolina House subcommittee on March 11, but not before lawmakers reduced the categories of identity that would be protected by the bill, removing sexual orientation and gender.
The House Judiciary Committee chairman, Chris Murphy, R-North Charleston, proposed to amend the bill, H.3620, to limit protected classes to race, color, religion, sex, nationality and physical or mental disability. This removed previous references to creed, gender, age, ancestry and sexual orientation.
The reasoning, Murphy explained, was that he had heard concerns from “a large number” of other House members about the bill being too extensive and wanted to ensure that he could reach the Republican-dominated legislature, focusing on the protected classes of more widely used in other hate crime legislation.
“The goal here is to get a bill that we can pass, not just in the judiciary, but also in the House,” said Murphy.
State Representative Justin Bamberg, D-Bamberg, stepped back, saying the project “is not going as far as we should”.
“I don’t necessarily know if the class change effectively covers what is and has been a very big problem, which is discrimination or hate crimes against the homosexual community,” said Bamberg.
Weston Newton subcommittee chairman R-Bluffton sought to assuage Bamberg’s concerns by pointing to a Supreme Court decision last year, Bostock v. Clayton, who concluded that discrimination “because of sex” includes sexual orientation or gender identity.
“If that body of jurisprudence is there, getting too attached to the specific text and the categories specifically identified, this thing can derail,” warned Newton. “I would like to see us change the subject, I would like to see us in full committee. I think that sending this type of message is important, that South Carolina is concerned with this type of behavior.”
Bamberg and state deputy Will Wheeler, D-Bishopville, ended up voting with Republican members in favor of the amendment and the broader bill
LGBTQ advocates expressed outrage at the change.
SC Equality executive director Jeff Ayers wrote to supporters that it is “a sad day in South Carolina” and said the group can no longer support the project without LGBTQ protection. Chase Glenn, the executive director of the Alliance for Full Acceptance, described the change as “incredibly discouraging”.
“The FBI has declared that hate crimes against LGBTQ people are on the rise and if we can’t count on our representatives to pass a hate crime bill that really includes one of the communities most affected by hate crimes, then what is the point of the bill? “Glenn said. “We cannot do politics when the lives of LGBTQ people are at stake.”
The project’s main sponsor and longtime champion, state deputy Wendell Gilliard, said the day was “bittersweet” for him.
“It was nice to have gotten this far, but along the way, we gave up a lot,” said Gilliard, D-Chaleston.
But Gilliard emphasized that the lawsuit is not yet over and said he was optimistic that language on sexual orientation and gender will be included back in the bill when it is presented throughout the judiciary committee.
Murphy’s amendment also added text to the bill making it clear that the extended penalties in the bill would be the maximum that a judge could use, leaving it to their discretion if they wanted to go that far, and cut a section on civil actions that some feared religious organizations could be used to suppress freedom of expression.
South Carolina is one of only three states with no hate crime laws in the books, along with Wyoming and Arkansas. Prominent business groups, including the SC Chamber of Commerce, supported the project this year, saying the lack of such a law could reflect negatively on the state’s values.
The measure will now pass to the House’s judiciary committee, probably in the coming weeks, before potentially advancing to the floor.
Follow Jamie Lovegrove on Twitter @jslovegrove.