NEW: Gender Identity to Hate Crimes Law
Friday, May 25, 2012
The House voted Thursday to include gender identity and expression in the definition of hate crimes tracked by state law.
“This legislation is acknowledgement that gender identity issues are real, that harassing people because of intolerance of their gender identity is wrong and that people have a right to express their own gender in whatever way they are comfortable,” said Sen. Rhoda E. Perry (D-Dist. 3, Providence) the sponsor of the bill (2012-S 2488).
The bill will now be transmitted to the governor. The legislation has passed both chambers once before, in 2010, but was vetoed by then-governor Donald Carcieri. House Judiciary Chairwoman Edith Ajello (D-Dist. 3, Providence) is sponsoring the same bill (2012-H 7111) in the House. It passed the House in February and is awaiting action by the Senate Judiciary Committee.GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST
“People who may identify as a gender other than their biological gender at birth are very frequently the victims of violence. That’s a hate crime just as much as when people are abused for their race or sexual orientation. If we’re going to track hate crimes in our state, we need to count hate crimes that are perpetrated based on a person’s gender identity,” said Representative Ajello.
Currently, state law defines hate crimes “as any crime motivated by bigotry and bias, including, but not limited to threatened, attempted, or completed acts that appear after investigation to have been motivated by racial, religious, ethnic, sexual orientation or disability prejudice or motivated by prejudice against a person who is homeless or is perceived to be homeless.” The legislation would add “gender identity or expression” to that list, so that crimes motivated by bias toward a victim’s gender identity or expression would be included when the state is tracking hate crimes. The legislation applies only to the way the state tracks crimes; it does not make any changes to charges or sentences for perpetrators.
