Attacks on gays and lesbians would be classified as hate crimes under a bill approved Wednesday by a Senate committee.
Democrats added the hate-crime provision as a last-minute amendment to a criminal-law bill that has been months in the making.
Attacks against gays, lesbians and the mentally and physically handicapped would be added to the state’s “bias-motivated crimes.”
Republicans protested that a crime is a crime, regardless of the motivation.
“Why do you single out one hate more than another?” said Sen. Norma Anderson, R-Lakewood. “That’s my objection.”
The bias-motivated-crimes section of the law already applies to attacks on people based on race, color, religion, ancestry or national origin.
Bob Grant, executive director of the Colorado District Attorneys Council, told lawmakers that any amendment could jeopardize the carefully crafted bill.
Grant said he could not remember a time in the past 28 years that lawmakers added such controversial amendments to the criminal-law bill, an annual update sought by law enforcement. The council helps draft the bill.
House Bill 1014 would allow law enforcement to collect cleanup fees from operators of methamphetamine labs and would make it a crime to make credible death threats to students, teachers or other school officials.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 4-3 to add “sexual orientation” and “physical and mental disability” to the list of specifically protected groups.
Democrats said efforts to add gays and lesbians to the hate-crime law have been proposed in previous years, so this amendment was not a way to pay back a key group of supporters who helped them win power last fall.
Also, Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon, D-Denver, said the bill was not political maneuvering to embarrass Gov. Bill Owens.
“This wasn’t part of a strategy to put the governor in a box,” Gordon said.
Staff writer Chris Frates contributed to this report.
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at mcouch@denverpost.com or 303-820- 1794.
