NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
April 9, 2005

EQUALITY MARYLAND
Contact: Dan Furmansky, Executive Director
Phone:    Office 301-587-7500
Cell    301-461-4900
Email:  dan@equalitymaryland.org

HATE CRIMES BILL HEADS TO GOVERNOR'S DESK

New Law Will Add Anti-LGBT Hate Crimes to Existing State Statute

Annapolis - Three months after the FBI announced that sexual orientation-based hate crime had become the second highest category of hate crime offenses in the United States, Maryland legislators have voted to expand the state's 17-year old hate crimes statute to include this category. Equality Maryland, Maryland's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) advocacy organization, praised the General Assembly for passing the Hate Crimes Penalties Act. The Act ensures that crimes against the transgender community, in addition to the gay community, will be fully investigated and prosecuted as hate crimes.

"Because FBI statistics are likely under-reported, it is clear that the importance of this bill cannot be overstated," said Executive Director Dan Furmansky. "Most members of the LGBT community know someone who has been victim of hate violence, and most of us have experienced the unsettling feeling that, if we're not 'careful,' we could be attacked on the street simply because of who we are.

On April 7, the legislation, sponsored by Delegate Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County) and Senator John Giannetti (D-Prince George's County), passed the Senate 31-13. The bill passed the House by a vote of 93-41 on March 23. Today the bill jumped its final hurdle and gained five new votes when the House concurred with a Senate amendment that clarifies that religious leaders and others who speak out against homosexuality in a peaceable way are not committing a hate crime.

The legislation now awaits signature by Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. who, despite cosponsoring the bill that created Maryland's hate crimes law when he served as a Delegate, has not yet taken a position on the Act.

Equality Maryland praised Del. Jones, Del. Susan Lee (D-Montgomery County), Del. Sandy Rosenberg (D-Baltimore City) and Sen. Giannetti for their hard work in ensuring the bill's passage. These legislators avoided all attempts to strip "gender identity" language out of the bill, which would have ignored the epidemic of violent crimes against transgender individuals. Twenty-nine states already include sexual orientation in their statutes. When the Hate Crimes Penalties Act becomes law, Maryland will join eight other states and the District of Columbia that also include the transgender community.

"Fair-minded Marylanders from Cecil County to Prince George's County urge Gov. Ehrlich to sign this important measure into law to ensure that our hate crimes statute is the most effective law enforcement tool that it can be," said Furmansky. "Keeping our streets safe is something everyone can agree on."