HATE CRIMES BILL STRIPPED OF SEXUAL ORIENTATION FROM: Pat Heck, Virginians for Justice 2/14/94 Please distribute widely, we need phone calls! HB889, a hate crimes bill that is modeled after the Wisconsin legislation that passed Supreme Court muster, has been stripped of "sexual orientation" and "gender". A House Courts of Justice Sub-Committee altered the bill in a meeting on Sunday. The full House is scheduled to vote on the bill Tuesday afternoon, 2/15. ACTION: Call the Speaker of the House, Tom Moss (D- Norfolk) before noon on Tuesday and ask that HB889 be stopped unless sexual orientation and gender are included. It is highly unlikely that the language will be reinserted by an ally on the floor, so we hope that Speaker Moss will delay the vote. If they do not vote on the bill tomorrow, it is effectively killled this year. We do not want the bill to pass in its current form. Tell him that hate crimes are a documented problem in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and straight-but-not-narrow community. Speaker's Office: 804-786-6880 or call 1-800-889-0229 to leave a message, but a call to his office is more effective. If the bill should pass tomorrow, we will be moving our efforts to the Senate, where we have small hopes of having the language reinserted. ------------ House Bill 1314 (HB1314) reads as below: "Nothwithstanding any other provision of law, intimate sexual acts between consenting adults in private for noncommercial purposes shall not be illegal." HB1314 is dead for this session. A House Courts of Justice Committee took up the bill on Sunday and after some discussion, an impass was reached. There were two motions, one to report the bill to the full committee and another to kill the bill. Neither motion passed, so the bill will not be considered this year. We will be back next year! ACTION: None at this time. We will work on this after the session ends on March 12. Concentrate on HB889. ----------- HB310: Patron- Clement (D-Danville) is a friendly replacement to HB1185. Will allow conversion of life insurance benefits persons with Virginia Retirement System-supplied life insurance. This will assist persons who need access to their benefits do to terminal illnesses, such as AIDS. OUTLOOK: Good. Has passed the House and now moves to the Senate. ACTION: Call your Senator and ask for a YES vote on HB310. ----------- An Amendment to State Budget in the House of Delegates: Would put into law the current policy that allows only an employee's spouse to receive benefits. This would apply to VA universities & colleges. The amendment has been trumpeted by Del. Wilkins (R-Amherst), minority leader, in response to Wm. & Mary's faculty vote to endorse domestic partnership benefits. OUTLOOK: The amendment has not yet surfaced, so we are expecting it to be offered on the floor of the House, rather than thru committee channels. When it does surface, we will act. It is now recommended that we stay quiet unless it does appear. House Budget bills may be heard as late as 2/18. ACTION: None for now, but we are strongly opposed if it should surface.