A hate crime bill in South Carolina no longer protects gay or transgender people after a Republican leader said that including them would likely cause members of his party to withdraw their support.
A House subcommittee on Thursday approved an amendment removing the bill’s sexual orientation, creed, gender, age and ancestry. The measure now includes only six protected groups, all of which have long been included in federal law: race, color, religion, sex, nationality and physical or mental disabilities.
Supporters of the originally drafted project questioned the value of a hate crime law that does not include gays and transgender people, who they say are among those most in need of protection.
“The mere fact that in 2021 there is any disagreement over whether gays should be included in a hate crime bill is indicative of why we need the bill,” said Democratic Representative Justin Bamberg.
Proponents of the bill also deplored the fact that the state took so long to approve any hate crime measure. It has been almost six years since a self-declared white supremacist killed nine black parishioners at Emanuel AME church in Charleston.
South Carolina is one of only three states – along with Arkansas and Wyoming – Without a hate crime law, the state’s powerful business community said the lack of protection could prevent expansions and new businesses.
The decision surprised LGBTQ groups, encouraged by the progress of the project.
“THE FBI 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 actually includes one of the communities most affected by hate crimes, then what is the purpose of this project ? “said Chase Glenn, the executive director of the South Carolina Alliance For Full Acceptance.
The Anti-Defamation League, which supported the initial version of the bill, said in a statement that the group was “shocked” by the “harmful and discriminatory” amendment.
“Eliminating sexual orientation and gender is leaving large groups of people out of protection from hate crimes, including the entire LGBTQ-plus community, which would no longer be protected,” said Allison Padilla-Goodman, vice president of the Southern Division of ADL, to CBS News. .
Padilla-Goodman said ADL and other advocates would push for protections to be added back to the bill when it is referred to the House’s judicial committee next week. House Judiciary President Chris Murphy said that protections for gays and transgender people could be restored as the legislation is passed by the rest of the House or Senate.
Murphy and the chairman of the Republican subcommittee, Weston Newton, said they understand the reasons for including sexual orientation in the project. But they said they needed to get as much Republican support as they could quickly. It is difficult to pass any bill that does not have broad support, unless passed in at least one chamber by April 8.
Jeffrey Collins / AP
“The goal is to get a project that we can approve,” said Murphy, a Republican from Summerville.
Newton said the amended hate crime bill may provide more protection than it appears after judges in a U.S. Supreme Court Georgia ruling in 2020 ruled that discrimination based on sex includes sexual orientation or gender identity .
But the project’s sponsor, Beth Bernstein, said the decision was unclear and could require the South Carolina Supreme Court to agree to the broader definition.
“This is simply disappointing,” said the Democrat from Columbia, who worked for months to carefully draft the bill, including holding public hearings last summer that tried to be as inclusive as possible.
Another version of a hate crime bill introduced in the Senate includes protections for targeted victims because of their sexual orientation. The project’s advocate, Democratic Senator Darrell Jackson, told CBS News that he has been pushing to approve some version of the project in South Carolina for more than two decades.
Jackson said having a hate crime law in place in South Carolina would act as a deterrent for someone who could target someone because of prejudice.
“That person would think, ‘You know what, there might be some bigger penalties for that – it’s not just going to be a slap in the face, I could be away for several years,'” said Jackson.
Jackson said he does not support the withdrawal of sexual orientation protections from the House bill and believes it will make its approval more difficult.
Republicans won two seats in the House and three in the state Senate in the 2020 elections, and the shift to the right was impossible to miss in this legislative session. ONE law that would likely prohibit almost all abortions has been approved after years of trying, but is in prison in court. A bill forbidding transgender students of playing sports on women’s teams in elementary and high schools is receiving audiences. And the House is likely to accept a proposal to allow people to carry weapons openly.
Conservatives fear that the hate crime bill could be used against religious groups that oppose homosexuality or abortion.
Supporters agreed on Thursday to remove civil penalties and include a clause that the penalty for hate crimes cannot exceed the penalty for the original crime. The bill would add five years to prison for someone convicted of murder, assault or another violent crime fueled by hatred, three years for harassment or harassment and an extra year behind bars for vandalism.