The Iowa Senate has passed a bill that would protect transgenders from hate crimes in the state.
In a party line vote 27-21, the state Senate passed Senate File 2284, which adds gender identity and gender expression to protections under the hate crime law.
The bill defines gender expression as "actual or perceived gender-related characteristics" while gender identity means "a gender-related identity of a person, regardless of the person's assigned sex birth."
If it becomes a law, the state's definition of hate crime would mean any public offence including assault, violation of individual rights, criminal mischief and trespassing "when committed against a person or a person's property because of the person's race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, political affiliation, gender identity, gender expression, sex, sexual orientation, age, or disability, or the person's association with a person of a certain race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, political affiliation, gender identity, gender expression, sex, sexual orientation, age, or disability."
The measure penalises an offender with fines for "injunctive relief, general and special damages, reasonable attorneys fees, and costs," LifeSite News reported.
It also criminalises an offense against someone because of the person's association with a person of a certain gender identity or gender expression.
Jen Wozniak of the American Family Association calls it lunacy.
"When states like Iowa attempt to add gender identity and gender expression to its Hate Crime statutes, it only demonstrates that lunacy prevails in the secular progressive movement. The sexual anarchists among us insist that there is no difference between male and female, and they also insist we agree with them – or else," she said.
All 26 Democrats in the state Senate voted for the bill along with Republican state Sen. Charles Schneider.
The Republican-controlled Iowa House will vote for the bill but it may not have the time before a key legislative deadline on Friday.
"Christians should certainly be compassionate towards those who are confused or otherwise struggling over their sexual or gender identity. But other people have rights, too. For example, many parents and many students prefer that someone born male not be allowed to undress around girls. That isn't hate," Wozniak said.
Republican state Sen. Mark Chelgren tried to amend the bill but failed in his attempt to include everyone in the state under hate crime protections.
"We should not be picking who is hated and who is not hated," Chelgren said.
Republican state Sen. Jake Chapman also failed to include "unborn person" to the hate crimes list. Openly gay Sen. Matt McCoy stopped Chapman's amendment, telling Senate president Pam Jochum that it wasn't relevant to the bill.
"I am saddened that this body has failed in its most basic responsibility:...a right to life," Chapman said, the Des Moines Register reported.
"It is a travesty for anyone to be violently victimised, regardless of the motivation for the crime. But hate crime laws are generally superfluous. There are stiff penalties for violent crime in every state in the U.S.," Wozniak said.
