Gays Seek Protection Under Hate Crime Laws Heterosexuals Unwittingly Attacked, Right Group Says

Idahoans are getting harassed for being homosexual even if they aren’t, according to the Idaho Human Rights Commission.

That’s one reason the commission wants to include sexual orientation in Idaho’s current hate crime law - to combat harassment based on actual and perceived sexual orientation.

“Malicious harassment has nothing to do with reality - it’s pure perception,” said Misty Schymtzik, vice chair of Idaho Family Friends and Neighbors.

Schymtzik is one of many advocates of proposed legislation that will be heard in the House State Affairs Committee on Wednesday.

Rep. John Campbell, R-Sandpoint, is a member of that committee. Campbell said the argument that the bill will protect heterosexuals being mistakenly harassed is weak. He said “you can tell” when someone is homosexual - they have “pierced ears and affect a certain persona.”

But that isn’t true, according to Schymtzik. She said of all the malicious harassments reported in Idaho in 1997, more were filed by heterosexuals mistaken as homosexuals than by actual homosexuals.

Misperception is one of many situations the Idaho Human Rights Commission wants to end with its proposed amendment to the Idaho malicious harassment law.

The current law protects citizens from violence and threats that are based on race, color, ancestry, religion, national origin.

Marilyn Shuler, retired director of the Idaho Human Rights Commission, is optimistic about the new legislation. “Idaho rejected the 1994 anti-gay initiative. That showed that our conservative state is willing to go the extra mile to stand up for people different than themselves.”

She referred to an initiative that would have prevented the extension of minority status to homosexuals.

Bill Wassmuth, the executive director of the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment, said that while hate crimes based on race, color, religion, national origin and ancestry are less prevalent, crimes against homosexuals are on the rise.

“Bias crimes against gays and lesbians are seen as acceptable,” while other hate crimes are becoming more and more taboo, Wassmuth stated. In fact, 494 bias crimes were reported in the Northwest in 1997, down from 695 in 1995. But at the same time, there was a marked increase in bias crimes based on sexual orientation.

Wassmuth said that the increase could be seen two ways. “It reflects a heightening awareness and improved reporting of sexually oriented bias crimes, but also shows that these crimes are becoming more frequent.”

They are becoming more frequent in Idaho, according to the Idaho Department of Law Enforcement. Its annual record of malicious harassment reports shows three sexual orientation-based reports filed in 1997, and eight filed in 1998. Three of those eight occurred in North Idaho - all three were assaults.

Rep. Jim Stoicheff, D-Sandpoint, is troubled by this. “People of any sexual persuasion should be protected,” he said. “It’s not illegal for a girl to love a girl or a boy to love a boy.”

Stoicheff is also a member of the House State Affairs Committee. “I would support anything that protects anyone from harm,” Stoicheff said.

Other legislators, though, have reservations. Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden, said that he would like to see “sexual orientation” defined.

Kelly Walton, president of the Idaho Christian Coalition, said he was “very disturbed that the Human Rights Commission is trying to promote this thing.” Walton, who pushed for the 1994 anti-gay rights initiative, worries that the proposed legislation would eventually protect pedophiles and other sexual deviants.

Walton opposes the amendment because he believes it puts too much emphasis on why a crime occurs, when the real concern should be the crime itself. An assault on a black, white, Jewish, gay or French person is just as heinous a crime as an assault on a “grandmother with a fat purse,” said Walton. “The crime is the same, the penalty should be the same.”

Donna Black, the president of the Queer Students Association at the University of Idaho, disagrees.

“They (homosexuals) are living life as fully as they know it and they’re being punished for it,” Black said. “Violence because you don’t like the way someone lives has no reason.”

Said Campbell, the Sandpoint lawmaker, “I don’t discriminate … but I think the commission has human rights confused with special rights.”