On March 25th the House Public Safety & Emergency Preparedness Cmte. reported SB 5952 out of committee with a “do pass” recommendation. The vote was 6 YES and 2 NO. Next stop, the House floor.  SB 5952 has already passed in the Senate.

The committee session was brief (listen here), but rewarding and telling.  Committee Chair Hurst, a veteran of law enforcement, gave a cogent explanation from that viewpoint as to why the bill is needed.  Rep Appleton stated the too-true-to-be-obvious: that transpeople are just people.  Rep Pearson apparently just doesn’t understand or believe that identity-based assault is a form of domestic terrorism.  And finally, Rep. Klippert, member of The Washington Hate Coalition, proved that he doesn’t even understand how the underlying law works – that the crime is in the words and deeds of the assailant and has nothing to do with how the victim is dressed.  

Voting YES: Hurst, O’Brien, Appleton, Goodman, Kirby, Ross

Voting NO:  Pearson, Klippert

Read the pre-voting comments of the legislators below.

Rep. Christopher HURST, D – 31st

Well folks, to start with, I think this is an important bill.  I spent 25 years in law enforcement, and in that time I, I arrested a lot of people for a lot of things.  All the way from petty crimes to murder.  And in working crimes, there is a difference.  Um, there is a difference, not that you can justify an assault of a person, or a robbery, but there are arguments that ensue and people get assaulted.  Um, there are domestic violence situations.  There are all these different things that happen.  People steal for different purposes, but there are certain groups of crimes who stand alone.  And, you cannot equate a crime where you are attacking a person simply because of who they are, or what they believe, and say that that is the same as an assault on a person that comes out of a dispute or something else.  I think that as a society, if we do not protect the rights of every single person to live their life as an individual, as a human being, and to respect their beliefs, their sexual orientation, their, their gender, their religion, then we as a society have failed.  And I do not believe that an assault is the same as an assault.  I think it is an egregious violation against all of us when an assault occurs like that.  History has taught us this lesson.  So I’m going to strongly urge the support of this bill today, and request that the members adopt it.

Rep. Sherry APPLETON, D-23rd

Thank you Mr Chair, I am so glad I have had a chance to vote on this bill.  Ah, years ago, when I worked for the legal marriage alliance, I found out, I had never met any transgendered people.  And the whole thing was that when I met transgendered people, they were just people.  It never dawned on me that they were any different than you or I.  And to think that there are people in our society who would take away the rights of all human beings to exist on this planet and to be considered equal in every way is unconscionable to me.  So this is a good bill, and I hope it has a lasting effect, that we won’t see any more young people hanging on fenceposts, or being run over by cars, or dragged behind trucks, or whatever the horrible uh, incidences have been.  And so, I agree with you.

Rep. Kirk PEARSON, R-39th

Thank you Mr Chairman. And um, I, I appreciate the discussion we’re having regarding this bill.  And I appreciate the bill coming forward, and a lot of you who yesterday testified to this legislation.  Uh, I’m a father, and I have a son in college, and ah I would be outraged if something like that happened to my son at his university where he’s at, and I’m outraged that it happened in Washington State University, eh the three cases.  I hope the perpetrator is caught, and that those who committed that, um, I look at it this way, you know um, all crimes when they’re assaulting are out of hate.  Ah people, you know people that are going to assault someone, I strongly believe, that is a hate crime.  Uh, I I know that this bill is going to move forward today, uh but, and I understand your concern about getting you know or identifying a certain group. I’m, I’m not convinced though that it is really needed because I believe a crime is a crime, and assault is an assault, and uh, however what has happened, you know, is deplorable.  But today I’m I’m a “no”, but uh I’d be interested to see how this bill moves through the process and uh maybe on the floor offer some amendments.  But um, right now I’m a “no” and I just want all of you to know that I deplore anybody >inaudible< anyone for any particular reason. You know, whether race or beliefs, anything like that.  So but today I’m a “no”, Mr Speaker.

Rep. Brad KLIPPERT, R-8th

Thank you Mr Chair.  Um, I would like to say, eh, kind of echo Representative Pearson’s comments.  I don’t. want. anyone in Washington State to be maliciously harassed, and stand for equal protection under the law for all the Washington state citizens.  Em, say for instance, em, if if two people walking down the street and subjected to assault or harassment, um, if one person happened to be, ah, dressed different than another, then one is going to be a Class C felony, and the other one a misdemeanor just because that person is dressed differently but they’ve both been assaulted and harassed in the same manner.  So, I stand for equal justice under the law for all of our citizens, and not making a special category.  So I want to make sure that it’s known that I stand for equal justice for all of our citizens, and that no one should be maliciously harassed.  Thank you Mr Speaker, I’ll be a “no” today because of that.

Cross-posted at Washblog.