MAIN EVENT. A Good Place to Get Started --- a.k.a "Table of Contents"
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MAIN EVENT. A Good Place to Get Started --- a.k.a "Table of Contents" |
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Event #162: Aloft the Moonmare 
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There is a phenomenon in the medical world called the "placebo effect." This is when a physician prescribes a substance containing no medication (often a sugar pill) in order to indulge a patient.
The patient, having no knowledge that the pills they are swallowing are fake, often report feeling much better. They feel improved because they think something is being done to cure their condition. In actuality, however, the little pills are not helping them at all.
This scenario reminds me of the push for Hate Crimes legislation.
Hate Crime laws increase the penalty on a crime if it can be proven that the victim was chosen because of their "minority" status. For example, if a person who was beaten up (fag bashed) can prove that they were targeted because they were gay, the attacker would get a little extra time in jail.
Hate Crime laws usually include "race, religion, gender and ethnicity." And while a few places have included "sexual orientation," most do not. Nor is there any federal Hate Crime law.
Now I realize as a gay man I am expected to be a supporter of Hate Crime laws. After all, if you read any of the local or national gay media you would think that the entire queer population is behind the notion. But there has been very little, if any, open discussion or debate about the concept within the community. It is just automatically assumed that if you are gay you are in favor of Hate Crime laws. It is also assumed that if you oppose Hate Crime laws you must either be a member of the "radical religious right" or an old fashioned bigot.
But like those little sugar pills given to placate patients, I don't think Hate Crime laws are going to do anything, except make us think we feel better. They are not actually going to help us.
The first problem with Hate Crime laws is that they do not work as deterrents. A lot of supporters of Hate Crime legislation will say that the laws will make people stop and think before they act.
Unfortunately, there just isn't any proof to support that claim. No studies show that areas with Hate Crime laws are less likely to endure the heinous acts. Indeed, why would a person who wasn't deterred by the initial penalty of their crime be stopped by a slight increase in that penalty? In other words, why would someone who wants to fag bash a gay person be stopped by the threat of an extra six months in jail if the original 5-7 years for Assault didn't stop them?
And when you consider that the vast majority of people who commit Hate Crimes are young men in their teens and twenties, many of whom are under the influence of alcohol at the time of their crime, the idea that they are going to stop and have a rational discussion before they act is just not realistic.
No, Hate Crime laws are not going to make the streets any safer for gays and lesbians.
The second problem with Hate Crime laws is that they punish a person's thoughts.
Now, I don't like to be hated any more than anyone else. But I do think people have a right to hate me if they want to. They have a right to call me a "faggot" (Hate Crime laws do not stop people from being called names. Name calling is protected under the First Amendment). They have the right to wish me ill. They have the right to flip me off.
What they don't have the right to do is to physically attack me or my property. And fortunately, I am protected already from those occurrences by existing laws (i.e. Assault, Battery, Murder, Vandalism).
So Hate Crime laws do not punish a person's actions, they punish a person's thoughts.
The biggest problem for me is that Hate Crime laws say that I am somehow "different" from the rest of society. And that people who attack me deserve a greater penalty.
I understand that these laws are designed to send the message that our society will not tolerate such crimes.
But these same laws also send the message that we are "protected" or "special." I have a problem supporting a law that says if someone attacks me they will get more time in jail than if they attack my friend who is straight. After all, if both my friend and I suffer equally in an attack, why should my attacker get more jail time than my friend's attacker? And doesn't this duality of law play right into the hands of our enemies who claim we are after "special" rights?
Again, I realize that a lot of people in the lesbian and gay community support Hate Crime laws. But once we have fought to get them... besides feeling better about ourselves, how will we be any better off?
Instead of a placebo pill we should focus on remedies that can really help. Maybe if we spent our time and money on the following, the street will become safer:
But a Hate Crime law, like that little sugar pill, is not going to help solve our problem. I don't know about you, but personally, I don't want to have my thoughts policed. Only my actions.
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