Equal Rights Under the Law … Three Lesbians Charged With Hate Crime for Assaulting a Gay Man in Boston, MA

If it is good for the goose, it should be good for the gay as well … They gay community wanted equal rights under the law, looks like they got it. However, when hate crimes on pinned on gays, they cry foul.

Three woman who have been described as lesbians were charged with assault and a hate crime for beating a gay man at the Forest Hill T in Boston, MA. Now the question will arise as to whether a gay on gay attack can be considered a hate crime. This does show just how foolish hate crime laws are. An assault is an assault. Now we have to make some assaults more important than others because of a perceived hate?

Three women identified by their lawyers as lesbians were arraigned yesterday on a hate crime charge for allegedly beating a gay man at the Forest Hills T station in an unusual case that experts say exposes the law’s flawed logic.

“My guess is that no sane jury would convict them under those circumstances, but what this really demonstrates is the idiocy of the hate-crime legislation,” said civil liberties lawyer Harvey Silverglate. “If you beat someone up, you’re guilty of assault and battery of a human being. Period. The idea of trying to break down human beings into categories is doomed to failure.”

Prosecutors and the ACLU of Massachusetts said no matter the defendants’ sexual orientation, they can still face the crime of assault and battery with intent to intimidate, which carries up to a 10-year prison sentence, by using hateful language.

Sounds like a she said, she said argument. What, do you mean that if some one who uses a gay slur who happens to be gay should not be treated the same in the eyes of the law? So if the girls were straight and hurled insulting homophobic slurs that would be considered a hate crime? I think we are beginning to see the flaws of hate crimes.

She said the victim, who suffered a broken nose, told cops he believed the attack was “motivated as a crime because of his sexual orientation” since the three women “called him insulting homophobic slurs.”

But attorney Helene Tomlinson, who represented Sanford, told the judge her client is “openly identified as a lesbian … so any homophobic (conduct) is unwarranted.” She said the alleged victim was the aggressor and used racial slurs: “He provoked them.”

Felicia Stroud’s attorney, C. Harold Krasnow, said, “They don’t know what his sexual orientation is, just like he doesn’t know what theirs is.”