Anti-"gay" hate speech outlawed. (Insider Report).

On December 3rd, Pennsylvania Governor Mark Schweiker "signed legislation that gives homosexuals statewide legal protection from verbal harassment and hate crimes -- a move that critics argue targets church leaders who preach against the homosexual lifestyle," reported the Washington Thnes.

The legislation added the phrase "ancestry, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation gender or gender id entity" to the list of protected categories in the state's Ethnic Intimidation law. It was drafted by the Philadelphia-based Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights (CLGCR), and passed with bipartisan support. CLGCR executive director Stacy Sobel insisted that the measure was "a statement that [state legislators] will not tolerate violence towards their most vulnerable constituents."

Crimes of violence were already punishable under Pennsylvania law, of course. "Hate crimes" measures of this sort require government to punish impermissible thoughts, rather than criminal acts. "We should be looking at the crime, not trying to decide what the thoughts were of the perpetrator," observed state Rep. Allan Egolf, who opposed the measure. Additionally, criminalizing "verbal harassment" will aid radical homosexual activists in silencing religious conservatives -- making such traditional people a truly "vulnerable" constituency. "Those especially at risk are conservative religious people who may very well find themselves hauled into court unless they keep their mouths shut for being politically incorrect," contends Laurel Lynn Petolicchio, a constitutional activist from Columbia, Pennsylvania.