By TOM DAVIES, Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A bill aimed at removing Indiana from the list of just five states without a hate crimes law cleared a legislative committee Monday, but not without the continued opposition of conservative groups that have stymied similar proposals for the last several years.
The Senate Public Policy Committee voted 9-1 to advance the bill to the full Senate after hearing nearly three hours of public testimony from opponents and supporters. The bill would specifically allow judges to impose additional penalties against those convicted of committing crimes fueled by biases regarding traits such as race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability and age.
DePauw President Mark McCoy has been working in cooperation with other universities in support of the hate crime bill. “I'm very concerned about our faculty, staff and students feeling that Indiana is a place that is committed to being the most inclusive place it can be,” McCoy said in an interview Tuesday.
The debate in the Republican-dominated Legislature comes in the wake of a controversy over a 2015 Indiana law that critics said allowed gay people to be discriminated against. The law was later changed, but only after a national backlash and threats of a boycott.
This year's push for a state hate crimes law has the backing of Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb, who has said the state is "long overdue" to adopt such a law following the spray-painting of a swastika outside a suburban Indianapolis synagogue last summer.=
An overwhelming majority of states have hate crime laws, which vary to some degree but generally allow for stiffer sentences to be given to people who are convicted of crimes motivated by hatred or bias. Only Indiana, Georgia, South Carolina, Wyoming and Arkansas do not.
Among the some 40 bill supporters who spoke before the committee were executives of business groups, corporations and universities, along with leaders of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and Hindu congregations.
McCoy was one of the many who spoke before the committee. “We are one people, we need to stand for each other,” McCoy said. “We're not separating ourselves into categories. We are supporting everyone, and you will be called out, and you will be dealt with as a purveyor of hate, if that is who you are.”
Repeated efforts for an Indiana law have failed amid fierce opposition from conservatives who maintain it would unfairly create specially-protected classes of victims and wrongly restrict free speech. About 10 bill opponents testified Monday, mostly leaders of prominent religious conservative groups in the state.
Hate crimes bill supporters maintain that judges are now reluctant to consider bias factors in sentences since they aren't specifically identified in state law.
Holcomb has said the new law should follow the state's employee anti-harassment policy, which has a list that includes sexual orientation and gender identity.
McCoy remains positive. “This is further than we've been, and I think by us consistently being willing to put our efforts to the things that are important to us and the things that we value we will see a change and that's what I'm trying to accomplish.”
Additional reporting by Bryttni Carpenter.