Critics assail scaledback hate crimes bill

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas legislative leaders introduced a drastically scaledback hate crimes measure last week that no longer explicitly refers to race, sexual orientation or gender identity, drawing the the ire of longtime proponents of such laws.

The new bill removes other specific classes that were covered in a hate crimes measure introduced last year that hasn’t even made it as far as a committee hearing, including sex, disability or military service. Instead, it refers to crimes committed against someone because of “mental, physical, biological, cultural, political, or religious beliefs or characteristics.”

Arkansas is one of three states without a hate crimes law, along with South Carolina and Wyoming. Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson has made enacting one a priority this year, but the effort has stalled due to resistance among conservatives in the majorityRepublican Legislature.

“We believe this is a more comprehensive approach and it’s an approach that protects all groups and classes,” said state House Speaker Matthew Shepherd, a Republican.

But the AntiDefamation League, which has been urging lawmakers to pass hate crime legislation, said the bill is worded so vaguely that it could even offer protections to Nazis and white supremacists. The group said it would not count Arkansas as having a hate crimes law if the measure is enacted.

“The legislation filed today is in no way a hate crime bill and is nothing more than an insult to vulnerable communities targeted by hate,” Aaron Ahlquist, the group’s south central regional director, said in a statement.

The reworked bill was introduced during a legislative session when several measures targeting transgender people have easily passed. Hutchinson has signed laws banning transgender women and girls from school sports teams consistent with their gender identity, and allowing doctors to refuse to treat someone based on the doctor’s religious or moral objections.

Hutchinson is also considering signing into law a bill that would make Arkansas the first state in the country to ban gender confirming treatments for transgender youth.

Republican state Senate President Jimmy Hickey, the new hate crimes bill’s chief sponsor, said he believes it would include crimes targeting transgender people. But he said it would cover crimes targeting others, citing Baptist preachers as an example.

“It’s more fair this way,“Hickey said.

Democratic state Sen. Joyce Elliott, who has advocated for hate crimes legislation since 2001, said she could not support the latest plan, which she called “cloaked in vagueness.“