Hate crimes law now covers gays

And of course it was opposed by many Republicans:

“The inclusion of the controversial language of the hate crimes legislation, which is unrelated to our national defense, is deeply troubling,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.

Hate crimes law enacted after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968 centered on crimes based on race, color, religion or national origin.

The expansion has long been sought by civil rights and gay rights groups. Conservatives have opposed it, arguing that it creates a special class of victims. They also have been concerned that it could silence clergymen or others opposed to homosexuality on religious or philosophical grounds.

But of course, the new law doesn’t make it illegal to say or think against homosexuality. If that was the way the law worked — because it has long covered crimes against religion — we’d have no end of criminal charges against Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins. We don’t.

If you think homosexuality is wrong, in other words, nothing’s going to happen to you — unless you decide to assault a gay person because they’re gay. So you might want to not do that.

There’s a solid argument to be made against hate crimes of any sort: We shouldn’t be singling out any group of people as a “protected class.” I respect that argument. But as a legal and practical matter, we’ve long recognized that there are groups of people who are particularly vulnerable to being victimized and that society has an interest in discouraging acts against those people.

In any case, it’s worth remembering the Republicans controlled Congress and the presidency for much of this decade. If they felt that “hate crimes” legislation is generally bad, they certainly could’ve made an effort to repeal the law. As far as I know, they didn’t. Draw your own conclusions.