Since when did victimhood become empowerment?
It’s a shame Gov. Bill Owens hasn’t vetoed more of the low-grade muggings on freedom thrown at him this legislative season.
But House Bill 1014, expanding hate- crime status to include sexual orientation and “bias-motivated crimes” – worthless in practice and dangerous in precedent – is certainly one the governor should have prevented from becoming law.
For everyone’s sake.
Maybe next legislative session, Owens will vindicate himself by putting his John Hancock on a bill that provides uptight straight white guys hate-crime status.
Then, we’d all be covered.
But don’t you dare ask why we elevate one citizen’s worth above another’s. And stop wondering if all crimes are hate crimes. Evidently, that would make you … pro-hate.
Thankfully, Owens did show courage in vetoing Senate Bill 28, which would have added sexual orientation to a list of protections from workplace discrimination – a bill that would have hurt gays in the long-run.
“He seems to be saying that it’s OK to fire them but not to kill them,” said Colorado Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff, after the veto.
If we invert Romanoff’s logic, we find this interesting assertion: Apparently, if Owens had vetoed HB 1014, he would be OK with killing gays.
Romanoff’s preposterous comments are no better – probably worse – than the rhetoric of misguided Republicans who compare gay marriage to shacking up with a horse.
We’ll wait patiently – forever, I suspect – for equivalent outrage.
Furthermore, it is OK to fire “them.”
Gay Americans do not coalesce into a stultified, indistinguishable minority.
Aren’t there lazy, inept gays, just as there are lazy, inept straights?
Bills like SB 28 would only bolster victim status for a sector of the population that has seen tremendous success without – and maybe, in part because – they haven’t relied on added “help.”
Owens says he vetoed the bill because he foresaw a spike in lawsuits for Colorado businesses. Maybe he did.
Rep. Alice Madden, who sponsored the bill, maintains that “the increase in lawsuits is just false.” And if she’s right, it only reinforces the case against the bill.
We don’t need it.
During the past five years, there hasn’t been a single case of discrimination based on sexual orientation filed with the State Personnel Board.
In fact, in 2005, there is less discrimination based on class, race or sexual orientation in the U.S. than ever before – particularly, in the reviled business sector, where the best people usually keep their jobs.
Still, it didn’t stop Romanoff, who was “deeply, deeply disappointed,” from further over-the-top rhetoric.
The speaker (perhaps forgetting it was Democrats who opposed the Civil Rights Act) contends that if Owens were around in the 1960s, we “wouldn’t have civil rights laws on the books.”
Romanoff’s comparison is inappropriate on many levels.
Gay Coloradans are not being lynched and tossed into shallow graves. They are not barred from voting. And they do not awaken to burning crosses in front of their Stapleton and Cap Hill homes.
Sure, there are homophobes out there, including some Republicans who, regrettably enough, oppose anything deemed favorable to gays.
But let’s not overstate the problem.
Truth is that in their search for more victims, Democrats patronize the gay community with ineffective bills, but, for the most part, lack courage to favor gay marriage.
This column advocates libertarian values – the individual’s right to do whatever he/she pleases as long as he/she doesn’t do it on my lawn. The majority of the gay community, which has a healthy aversion to government intrusion, is better off rejecting special rights.
Gay Coloradans deserve the freedoms we all share – no more, no less.
David Harsanyi’s column appears Monday and Thursday. Reach him at 303-820-1255 or dharsanyi@denverpost.com.
