Published April 19, 2008 09:57 pm -
Though the recent congressional debate over legislation like the Matthew Shepard Act — a law that would expand federal hate crime laws to include crimes against gays, lesbians and transgenders — has put hate crime legislation back into the spotlight, the United States is no stranger to hate crime laws.
The federal government passed laws against hate crimes as early as 1969, and since then, 45 states have followed suit and passed hate crime laws as well.
Indiana is not one of those states. In fact, Indiana is one of just five states that have passed no hate crime legislation to date — and, according to State Rep. Greg Porter, that puts Indiana behind the times.
“It’s a travesty for a state like this to have no bias crime legislation on the books,” he said. “It’s a travesty for this state to fail to protect people.”
According to Porter, a Democrat who represents sections of central Indianapolis, some hate crime legislation was in front of the General Assembly this year, but it was killed shortly after it came out of committee.
Porter also said that this is the third year that he’s presented hate crime legislation to the General Assembly, and that he won’t be stopped from presenting it in the future.
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