The following press release is from Equality Colorado, PO Box 300476, Denver, CO 80203, (303)839-5540, fax(303)839-1361.
It came to us from Gender Advocacy Internet News (GAIN), an Internet news service of the American Educational Gender Information Service and It's Time, America! Contact GAIN at penn45@ma.ultranet.com.

April 9, 1998 - Denver - The Hate Crimes bill to expand the existing Ethnic Intimidation Act died for the second year in a row in the House Appropriations committee. This is the fourth year that a similar bill has been killed by the legislature. The bill would add sexual orientation, disability and age to the existing Ethnic Intimidation Act and would also change the name of the crime from 'Ethnic Intimidation' to 'Hate Crime' in keeping with language used at the federal level. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Penfield Tate (D-Denver) and was brought forward by a coalition of groups supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, people with disabilities and seniors.

"Perpetrators of hate violence commit these crimes because they think we won't fight back and that no one cares enough to protect us." said Sue Anderson, Executive Director of Equality Colorado. "Our elected officials have again made a clear statement that they indeed don't care. If perpetrators of hate crimes against people based on race, religion, ethnicity or national origin deserve to have additional penalties added to their charges, then this should be true for perpetrators of ALL hate crimes. Sadly, the legislature finds that other victims of hate crimes should not be recognized. This sends a frightening message to both perpetrators and victims."

According to the FBI, a crime is classified as bias-motivated or a hate crime when it is clear that "the offender's actions were motivated, in whole or in part, by bias." Hate crime laws send a clear, unequivocal message to victims, perpetrators and law enforcement officials that crimes motivated by bigotry and hatred will not be tolerated and should receive harsher punishment. According to preliminary research by the National Institute Against Prejudice and Violence, victims of bias crimes suffer two to three times more symptoms of trauma than victims of comparable crimes that do not involve prejudice.

The Federal Hate Crimes Statistics Act calls for voluntary data collection of hate crimes, including those on the basis of sexual orientation. Compliance concerning all hate crimes with the voluntary reporting program by law enforcement continues to be a significant problem across the country. According to FBI statistics, in Colorado in 1996, only 27 out of 230 law enforcement agencies reported in this program. Reporting on crimes against gays and lesbians, people with disabilities and seniors are mostly disregarded in what little hate crime reporting exists in Colorado since these groups are not included in Colorado law.

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