Last month, the U.S. senate unanimously voted to pass the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act of 2018 and make lynchings a federal hate crime. It took around 200 tries and over 100+ years, but they finally–finally!–did it.
New York Times reported in December:
More than 4,700 people, the vast majority of them black, were lynched in the United States between 1882 and 1968, according to the N.A.A.C.P. Perpetrators were rarely prosecuted. Congress has tried and failed some 200 times to pass similar anti-lynching legislation since 1882, according to the bill.
If the bill is enacted, it would add a section titled “lynching” to federal civil rights law. In addition to “race, color, religion, and national origin,” it would cover crimes motivated by hatred towards a person’s “gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability”.
Now, evangelical activists are urging Republican lawmakers strip away protections for LGBTQ people from the legislation.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Everything else can stay, just not the gay stuff.
Christian extremist Mat Staver of Liberty Council tells OneNewsNow that he’s been personally lobbying lawmakers in the House of Representatives to scrub away any mention of sexual orientation or gender identity from the bill.
“The old saying is once that camel gets the nose in the tent, you can’t stop them from coming the rest of the way in,” he says.
“And this would be the first time that you would have in federal law mentioning gender identity and sexual orientation, as part of this anti-lynching bill.”
Staver, who falsely claimed first responders at the 2016 Pulse massacre had to “get tested for AIDS-related conditions” after coming into contact with the blood of gay victims, fears protecting LGBTQ people from being lynched creates a “slippery slope” that could lead to more anti-discrimination laws protecting gay people.
God forbid.
“This is a way to slip [anti-discrimination laws] in under a so-called anti-lynching bill, and to then to sort of circle the wagon and then go for the jugular at some time in the future,” he warns.
Related: Horrible antigay pastor who cheered Pulse attack loses job amid sex scandal
Mack
Really “take out the gay stuff”? How about we include “religious con-men” as one you can lynch?
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
When is some gay billionaire going to finally put together some sort of a program where they put a bounty out for information about any kind of dirt on any of these scumbags like Staver???
Put it out there pay $100,000 cash for any kind of verifiable dirt regarding kids prostitutes any kind of illegal activity most of these right-wing scumbags have plenty of dirty little skeletons in their closets and then spread it and bring them down in disgrace like countless others subhuman scum after this happens a few times these pieces of garbage will keep their mouths shut and let us live our lives in peace….
redzebra1
I guess they’re too busy hiring rent-boys to come to their mansion, if they’re single. Too selfish
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
This is a bill that UNANIMOUSLY passed in the US Senate! Something that is beyond unheard of in this political climate. Even the most homophobic right wing Senators agree that even Gays should not be lynched. And the House is now in Democratic control. So this bill is guaranteed to pass.
Yet this sub human self hating closet case piece of filth still feels the need to show it’s hatred towards Gays…..Rot in Hell you smcubag
misterjack
And all so-called “Christians” look the other way and let this fly. “Oh, I didn’t do it! I’m not THAT kind of Christian! That’s THOSE kind of Christians! WE believe in LOVE!” /gag
Christian = Complicit = Christ Stain
MuslimSlutBox
There are so many lynchings these days that we really DO need legislation against them. Can we spend our time worrying about something meaningful please?
PanzerRider
I didn’t realize it was legal to lynch gays prior to this legislation. Oh wait. Why is the Congress, with the vastness of the serious issues that need to be addressed, spending anytime on feel good legislation that serves no other purpose than making something that is illegal already really really illegal? And have we all time warped back to 1920’s Alabama? I had not heard of the increase in lynchings across the country.
Creamsicle
Yeah aren’t lynchings technically any extrajudicial mob execution? Those are illegal by definition. They don’t have to include hanging, but they were highly associated with them.
I agree that this is kind of redundant legislation, but it can also be important to codify obvious hateful acts as hate crimes.