Why Would Those Who Happily Look to Motivation in the “Reverse Discrimination” Context Oppose the Hate Crimes Bill?
It appears, then, that those who assert that the hate crime bill represents a prohibition on “thought crime” either do not understand or do not truly believe what they are saying. In other contexts, they are comfortable and even enthusiastic about condemning the behavior of actors whose reasons and motivations offend them. And this is true even in areas in which, absent the relevant motivation, the conduct would – unlike in the hate crime context – be perfectly legal (such as the area of at-will employment). If opponents are not truly of the view that hate crimes are “thought crimes,” however, what explains the opposition? As with any attempt to identify motive, my efforts to explain conservative opposition to the hate crime bill’s expansion may turn out to be mistaken. My hypothesis, however, is that those who dislike gay people (one of the groups whose status was added in the hate crime bill amendment, under “sexual orientation”) might not like the idea of singling out crimes committ
