House makes sexual orientation, gender identity, and pedophilia protected categories in federal hate crime law

From Gary Bauer’s May 1 e-mail newsletter, sent by Clark Coleman:

Hate Crimes In The House

Let me say it again: Elections have consequences. We got another example of that this week. Anyone who has doubts that the political Left’s goal is to remake America must be sleep walking through life. What the Democrats did this week in the House of Representatives was vote to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the federal hate crimes law.

I don’t know if you are aware of this, but there are dozens of sexual orientations and gender identities, none of which are defined in this law. I won’t embarrass you by listing them all, which will be protected as equals to race and religion in federal law if this bill makes it to President Obama’s desk. But I will mention one: adults who are attracted to children, pedophiles.

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing, one of our best conservative friends on Capitol Hill, Rep. Steve King (R-IA), offered an amendment to make sure that nothing in the bill would be construed to legally protect adults who are attracted to children. It was voted down 10-to-13. But I bet you didn’t hear about that because Big Media didn’t report it. If Republicans had voted against some really “big” issue, like evolution, that would be big news. But when 13 House Democrats vote to protect pedophilia, it gets a collective yawn from the media.

The hate crimes bill passed the House Wednesday. Ninety percent of Democrats voted for it; 90% of Republicans voted against it. You can read more of my thoughts on how this law may impact religious liberty in my weekly Human Events column at www.humanevents.com.

Let me repeat one more time: Elections have consequences. And, sadly, too many conservatives are still passive in the cultural wars raging today. Not enough are volunteering for candidates, not enough are attending political meetings; not enough are writing letters to editors; and not enough financially supporting conservative political groups like this one. If that continues, we will continue to have more weeks in Washington like this one.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 02, 2009 11:19 AM | Send