Abstract
The purpose of this article is to bring to the attention of researchers, scholars, and politicians an important point about the harms to LGBT victims resulting from hate crimes—one that, in my view, is ignored and is critical to the justifications for allowing bias crime victims to obtain legal compensation for being victimized on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. More specifically, this article critiques the current framing of anti-LGBT hate crimes in scholarship and empirical research and reconceptualizes these crimes as systemic inhibitors to expressive and associative opportunities on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation (this argument will be developed in Part IV).
Highlights
In 1968, Congress enacted Title 18 U.S.C. § 245, the first piece of federal hate crime legislation
The Matthew Shepard Act was the first piece of legislation which aimed to expand the definition of hate crime to include sexual orientation and gender identity to pass through both the U.S House of Representatives and U.S Senate
The Matthew Shepard Act emphasizes the need for the federal government to become involved in prosecuting and investigating anti-LGBT hate crimes when local and state hate crime laws are ineffective or nonexistent
Summary
In 1968, Congress enacted Title 18 U.S.C. § 245, the first piece of federal hate crime legislation. The Matthew Shepard Act was the first piece of legislation which aimed to expand the definition of hate crime to include sexual orientation and gender identity to pass through both the U.S House of Representatives and U.S Senate. This article critiques the current framing of anti-LGBT hate crimes in scholarship and empirical research and reconceptualizes these crimes as systemic inhibitors to expressive and associative opportunities on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation (this argument will be developed in Part IV). Part VI illustrates that expanding federal hate crime [Vol 6:81 legislation to include gender identity and sexual orientation is politically desirable because expression and association are vital instruments for democratic self-governance, truth-discovery, and autonomy
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