The case against two UW-Madison freshmen and their visitors for disorderly conduct and property damage seemingly targeted at an Ogg Hall LGBT student liaison is significant. We find the alleged drunken follies'tearing materials off an LGBT awareness bulletin board, spitting on the liaison's door, shouting and writing anti-gay remarks'to be disheartening.
The diversity of our campus is a valuable tool for education and University Housing's LGBT student liaisons play an important role in fostering a student community aware of and respectful towards lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students. An offense against the LGBT population is an act of disgrace towards the tradition of the university.
Further, the manner in which the implicated teenagers are being prosecuted is additionally concerning.
Under Wisconsin Statues, when a crime is 'committed in whole or in part because of the defendants' belief or perception regarding the sexual orientation of that person,' that offense is automatically considered a hate crime and the penalties increase dramatically.
The students in question have been charged with two counts each of a hate crime against the LGBT student liaison and, in accordance with state hate crime law, the maximum penalties facing each defendant jump from 21 months to 45 months in prison, and from $21,000 to $30,000 in fines as a result of their alleged motive.
It is our belief that hate crime laws like Wisconsin's are in the wrong because they afford minority populations special, un-equal rights under the law, a clear infringment of the Fourteenth Amendment. The law must regard all citizens as equals. Moreover, hate crime statues shift the focus of a crime from intent to motive, thereby penalizing thought. The First Amendment protects freedom of speech and thought'??laws must not be enacted in an attempt to outlaw hate.
According to the criminal complaint, a possible impetus for the actions of the defendants is one student's desire to show his friends 'how liberal Madison [is].' One reality of this posture is our strong LGBT community. Another tenant must be the ability to think'and hate'freely, no matter how ignorant or misguided.
