Hate crimes; gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation, penalty. (HB266)

Introduced By

Del. Cheryl Turpin (D-Virginia Beach) with support from 8 copatrons, whose average partisan position is:

Those copatrons are Del. Dawn Adams (D-Richmond), Del. Patrick Hope (D-Arlington), Del. Kaye Kory (D-Falls Church), Del. Mark Levine (D-Alexandria), Del. Ken Plum (D-Reston), Del. Debra Rodman (D-Henrico), Del. Marcus Simon (D-Falls Church), Sen. Janet Howell (D-Reston)

Progress

Introduced
Passed Committee
Passed House
Passed Senate
Signed by Governor
Became Law

Description

Hate crimes; gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation; penalty. Adds gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation to the categories of victims whose intentional selection for a hate crime involving assault, assault and battery, or trespass for the purpose of damaging another's property results in a higher criminal penalty for the offense. The bill also adds gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation status to the categories of hate crimes that are to be reported to the central repository of information regarding hate crimes maintained by the Virginia State Police. The bill provides that a person who is subjected to acts of vandalism to his real or personal property, where such vandalism is motived by gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation, may bring a civil action to recover his damages. The bill also provides that no provider or user of an interactive computer service on the Internet shall be liable for any action voluntarily taken by it in good faith to restrict access to material that the provider or user considers to be intended to incite hatred on the basis of gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation. Read the Bill »

Outcome

Bill Has Failed

History

DateAction
01/03/2018Committee
01/03/2018Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/18 18103792D
01/03/2018Impact statement from VCSC (HB266)
01/03/2018Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice
01/16/2018Impact statement from DPB (HB266)
01/25/2018Assigned Courts sub: Subcommittee #1
02/02/2018Subcommittee recommends passing by indefinitely (5-Y 3-N)
02/15/2018Left in Courts of Justice

Comments

Mary D. Devoy writes:

Recommended amendment:

Add “those required to register on the Virginia State Police Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry”.

Why? See here, http://goo.gl/itqmuw

ACLU-VA LGBT Rights, tracking this bill in Photosynthesis, notes:

The ACLU of Virginia supports this bill that adds disability, gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation to current Virginia laws that provide enhanced penalties for certain crimes when motivated by "hate" and to the state law requiring reporting of "hate crimes" to the Virginia State Police.