By Gregory Korte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnati's 65th homicide of 2002 is prompting a proposal to expand Cincinnati's "hate crime" ordinance to include crimes against people because of their homosexuality.

Cranley

Councilman John Cranley on Thursday proposed adding gender, age, disability and sexual orientation to the city's hate crime law. The law now applies only to race, color, religion and national origin.

Mr. Cranley's motion comes three weeks after a fatal shooting in Over-the-Rhine that police think was motivated by anti-gay hatred.

Mr. Cranley's proposal, which will get a hearing in a council committee Tuesday, is likely to reopen the decade-old debate over Article XII of Cincinnati's charter. The amendment, which passed as Issue 3 in 1993, prohibits any city law that gives "minority or protected status" to people based on sexual orientation or preference.

Councilman David Crowley, a co-sponsor, said the ordinance would send a message that "people who have an orientation that is outside the mainstream of heterosexual America are entitled to the same rights - not special rights - as anyone else."

The New Year's Eve shooting of Gregory Beauchamp prompted the proposal, Mr. Cranley said. Mr. Beauchamp was walking with two male friends dressed in women's clothing to an Over-the-Rhine bar when someone in a car carrying people shouting anti-gay epithets shot him.

Because city ordinances can criminalize only misdemeanors, Mr. Cranley's ordinance would not have applied to that case. It would provide for increased penalties for anti-gay motivated assault, menacing, telephone harassment or vandalism.

Ohio's hate crime law does not include sexual orientation.

While gay rights groups applauded the proposal, some conservative activists immediately denounced it as unnecessary and an attempt to chip away at Issue 3, which passed with 62 percent of the vote.

"The question that really needs to be answered is this: Is the life or property of a person who identifies themselves as homosexual more valuable than the life or property of a heterosexual?" said David Miller, vice president of the Citizens for Community Values.

"Whoever shot and killed the guy on New Year's Eve knew murder was against the law," he said. "These laws are not meant to stop crimes from taking place. They're meant to punish people who object to homosexuality. That's where these hate crime laws are going."

But Doreen Cudnik, a gay-rights activist, said a change in the hate crime law would begin to send the message that Cincinnati is a tolerant community.

"There's already an outpouring of support in the GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual) community - and in the supportive straight community - to get behind this," she said. "In light of Article XII, this hate crime ordinance would signal a change in Cincinnati, and also certainly help us keep in step with other American cities."

Others on City Council stayed mum Thursday. Republican Chris Monzel, who identifies himself as a "compassionate conservative," said he would want to research the issue before taking a position.

Todd Portune, now a Hamilton County commissioner, proposed a similar ordinance in 1999. City Council killed it because of concerns it violated the city charter, but later legal opinions said the two were not incompatible.

The reasoning: A hate crimes law doesn't confer any additional rights on the victim of a crime, but only strengthens the penalties against the perpetrator of a crime.

"Hate crimes are troubling because they can strike fear in people who have done nothing illegal and are only members of an identifiable group," Mr. Cranley said.

E-mail gkorte@enquirer.com