Legislature expands
hate crimes measure

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By Pat Omandam
pomandam@starbulletin.com

The Legislature has expanded the state's 2-year-old hate crimes law by covering persons who commit crimes because of a person's actual or perceived gender identity.

The proposed changes, found in Senate Bill 616, augment the law that imposes longer sentences for crimes motivated by religion, race, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity or national origin.

Legislature Directory Legislature Bills & Hawaii Revised Statutes

Lawmakers said "sexual orientation" is different from "gender identity," such as transvestites and transgendered people, who often struggle with their gender identity and are harassed and sometimes assaulted for being different.

The proposed changes were among three bills approved by the Legislature yesterday. The others would remove Social Security numbers from poll books and appropriate $9.55 million to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs for unpaid ceded-land revenues since September 2001.

The hate crimes bill goes to the governor for consideration.

Eight House Republicans opposed the hate crimes measure yesterday, including state Rep. Mark Moses (R, Kapolei), who said it does not matter why a crime was committed and that only the person who did it would really know why. "What does it matter why you hit somebody, why you steal from somebody or why you murdered somebody?" Moses said.

The House also approved another Senate bill dealing with identity that bans the printing of a voter's Social Security number in an election poll book. Legislators said identity theft is a serious problem and that voters should not be discouraged from registering to vote out of concern their Social Security numbers would be on public display.

Senate Bill 685 allows the Elections Office to continue using Social Security numbers for voter registration, but those numbers will not be displayed in the poll books. The bill goes to Gov. Linda Lingle for review.

Meanwhile, the Legislature acted on request from Lingle in February to approve $9.5 million in emergency funding to pay part of the $12.3 million in undisputed ceded-land revenue to OHA. The Senate has made minor changes to House Bill 1307, and the House will likely accept them, sending the bill to the governor.

A September 2001 ruling by the Hawaii Supreme Court struck down a 1990 law governing ceded-land revenue payments to OHA because the state law conflicted with an overriding federal law. The Hawaii justices said a new state law was needed.