The Roanoke Times

Printed Sept. 26, 2000

By MIKE HUDSON
THE ROANOKE TIMES

In the wake of a shooting spree in Roanoke, gay-rights activists are pushing to expand state and federal hate-crime laws by including attacks based on sexual orientation.

The Friday night violence at a bar that is frequented by gays and lesbians has prompted a Roanoke Valley legislator to rethink his opposition to including anti-gay violence in the provisions of Virginia's hate-crime law.

"What it has pointed out to me is there is a lot of diffuse hate out there," Del. Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton, said Monday. "This is something that will tear our society to shreds if we don't get a handle on it."

Opponents of hate-crime laws say they are unnecessary because crimes such as assault and murder can already be prosecuted under criminal statutes.

Supporters say violence motivated by hatred of a group warrants extra law enforcement and tougher punishments because the violence not only harms the victim but intimidates the whole group.

On the federal level, gay activists are asking Sen. John Warner, R-Va., to reconsider his opposition to legislation that would expand the definition of hate crimes.

Passage of the provision would give federal law-enforcement agencies the authority to investigate and prosecute crimes that target gays and lesbians.

Warner is a member of the House-Senate conference committee where the hate-crime bill is stuck. A letter from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force says Warner "has the ability and therefore responsibility to ensure that the existing federal hate-crimes law is expanded to cover crimes based on actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender or disability."

A spokesman for the task force said the letter is being circulated among gay activists in Roanoke to get their signatures before it is sent to Warner.

Carter Cornick, a spokesman for Warner, said the senator is "profoundly concerned about what occurred in Roanoke." He said Warner has opposed the hate-crime provision, which has been attached as an amendment to a defense bill, because it might threaten military funding, because it might not survive constitutional review, and because it might overrule tougher state hate-crime laws.
Warner did support a study proposal aimed at finding out whether there are hate crimes that are not being prosecuted at the state level.

Roanoke police say the suspect in the Friday night shootings expressed a desire to kill gay people and was searching for a gay bar when he entered the Backstreet Cafe and opened fire. One person was killed and six others were wounded.

Virginia's hate-crime statute makes it a felony if someone assaults another person based on the victim's race, national origin or religion. A conviction carries a mandatory 30-day sentence.

Attempts to add sexual orientation to the law have failed in recent years. Cranwell has voted against the expansion, saying he had qualms with using the status of the victim as a way of elevating the perpetrator's punishment.

Once you start adding protected groups, he has said, "where does it stop?"

Cranwell said an expanded hate-crime provision wouldn't make any difference in the case of Ronald Edward Gay, the man held in the Backstreet Cafe shootings.

Don Caldwell, Roanoke's commonwealth's attorney, has said Gay "is looking at being locked up for the rest of his life."

Prosecutors plan to bring Gay to trial on a first-degree murder charge along with several felony counts of wounding and firearms violations.

In light of the shootings, Cranwell said Monday an expanded hate-crime law might be one way of sending a message that "hate based on status" is not acceptable.

Other legislators continue to oppose including sexual orientation in the Virginia law.

Asked about efforts to expand the hate-crime law, Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, said: "Gee, I thought they'd be pushing to allow law-abiding citizens to arm themselves in restaurants. Because those who are determined to commit crimes are going to have the guns."

Having guns probably would not have protected the first victims, Griffith said, but "based on what I've read, you would have to wonder how many of those other folks would be in serious condition" if they'd had weapons to defend themselves.

As for the hate-crime law, Griffith said he didn't believe it was right to single out any group of victims for special provisions in the law. "Anybody who's assaulted or wounded or maimed ought to expect the law to punish the perpetrator no matter what the underlying motive is," he said.

According to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, 23 states and the District of Columbia include sexual orientation in their hate-crime statutes. Virginia is one of 17 states that does not. (Ten states have no hate-crime laws.)

Del. James Almand, D-Arlington, and state Sen. Patsy Ticer, D-Alexandria, have been the perennial sponsors of legislation to expand hate-crime provisions to include anti-gay violence. Both said they will try again when the General Assembly meets in January.

Each year, Ticer said, her bill has come a little closer to passing. Last year it fell one vote short of gaining committee approval and coming to a vote in the full Senate.

"I will keep trying," Ticer said. "And I think with each vicious crime that gets publicity, people will get to know the innocent faces of the victims. Then I think people will open their hearts."

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