Hate Group Leader Objects to LGBTQ Inclusion in Anti-Lynching Bill

Mat Staver of the far-right legal group Liberty Counsel thinks it's a terrible idea to make lynching a federal hate crime -- if the law covers crimes against LGBTQ people.

The U.S. Senate in December unanimously passed the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act, introduced by the chamber's three African-American members -- Democrats Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Republican Tim Scott of South Carolina. It has to be reintroduced now that a new Congress has been sworn in, and such action is planned.

It defines lynching as "if 2 or more persons willfully cause bodily injury to any other person, because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin ... or gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of any person." The Justice for Victims of Lynching Act provides for sentences of up to 10 years for causing injury and up to life for causing death.

But to right-wing outlet One News Now, the inclusion of sexual orientation or gender identity amounts to "special rights for homosexuals and transgenders." And Staver told the site, which is affiliated with the anti-LGBTQ American Family Association, that some senators may have voted for the bill without realizing that.

"The old saying is once that camel gets the nose in the tent, you can't stop them from coming the rest of the way in," he said this week. "And this would be the first time that you would have in federal law mentioning gender identity and sexual orientation as part of this anti-lynching bill."

There have been several attempts over the years, all surprisingly unsuccessful, to pass federal laws against lynching, which was widely used against African-Americans from the end of the Civil War until the mid-20th century, usually without prosecution of the perpetrators. The Senate has passed resolutions condemning the practice and apologizing to its victims, but legislation outlawing it has never made its way through both houses of Congress and to the president. It remains "wholly necessary and appropriate for the Congress to enact legislation," the bill's text states.

Staver told One News Now that he is lobbying House members against the bill, which the site says is "being used as back door approach to pass legislation such as the controversial Employment Non-Discrimination Act" because no lawmaker could oppose a measure against lynching.

ENDA, which would ban employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, has now been superseded by the Equality Act, which would also ban such discrimination in housing, credit, and other areas. ENDA was never passed in both houses of Congress, and the Equality Act remains pending. Democrats, who now have a majority in the U.S. House, have vowed to make it a priority. Such legislation is likely controversial only to anti-LGBTQ hate groups, which is how the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies both Liberty Counsel and the AFA.

Sexual orientation and gender identity are mentioned in the federal law against hate crimes and in the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, signed into law by President Obama in 2009. It's the first federal statute to include these terms.