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Oklahoma Lawmakers accidentally vote to strip religious protections

Lawmakers in Oklahoma were so determined not to cooperate with federal officials investigating hate crimes targeting gays and lesbians that they voted for a bill requiring that police files and other documents be kept from federal investigators.
But the Oklahoma State Senate referenced the wrong section of the penal code; lawmakers ended up voting to strip away hate crimes protections relevant to race and religion, not sexual orientation or sexual identity.

"The bill in its current form doesn’t take away rights from gays and lesbians," said Oklahoma State Senate Minority Leader Andrew Rice. "It takes away rights for religion and race." Added Rice, "Gay and lesbian citizens should be upset because someone tried to take their rights away, but minority groups should be concerned that their rights have already been voted to be taken away by the Senate. People who consider themselves Jewish, black, even Christians should be outraged."

http://www.edgedallas.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=&sc...

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Permalink Reply by MaleficVTwin on March 31, 2010 at 2:32am

Even Christians?!?! What is this Christian Nation coming to??? ;)

Permalink Reply by Jerica O'Hagan on March 31, 2010 at 8:40am

I know, it's sad! The Christians want to rule this nation, even though this country was NOT supposed to be a Christian nation! Washington said so himself.... :.(

Permalink Reply by Dean Jones on March 31, 2010 at 5:15am

See, the thing is that this story is a perfect example of why 'Separate but equal' in the gay marriage question is completely unacceptable. If the protections for gays are separate from all the other protections there's literally nothing to stop bigots from enacting laws which nullify said protection.

Permalink Reply by Susan Stanko on March 31, 2010 at 8:39am

That'll teach them.

Permalink Reply by Shaun Mason on March 31, 2010 at 11:34am

This is just so fucking funny I can't stand it. In the meantime, Oklahoma's hillsides are overrun with meth labs. You have to love these guys for having their fucked up priorities straight.

Permalink Reply by Jo Jerome on April 3, 2010 at 6:16pm