If Called An LGBT Pejorative While Being Beaten In Baltimore, That’s “Free Speec

[Natasha]

If Called An LGBT Pejorative While Being Beaten In Baltimore, That's "Free Speech"

http://transadvocate.com/autumnsandeen/archives/1391#more-1391
by Autumn Sandeen
01/25/2008

If you call me ->-bleeped-<-got, she/male, or transvestitute as part of verbal discourse, that's protected speech under the constitution. However, if one calls me an LGBT pejorative while violently attacking me in a jurisdiction with a hate crime statute, that would seem to me to be a prima fascia case for labeling the assault a hate crime, and it would be up to the attacker to prove that use of the LGBT pejorative wasn't meant to single out the victim because of an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity.

[NicholeW.]

The entire absence of prosecution 'due to free speech' seems ludicrous.

Now if a group of caucasians beat and then tied a black man to the bumper of their truck and dragged him down a Baltimore street while screaming racial slurs I wonder would the Atty-Gen's office in Annapolis refuse to prosecute that crime as a hate crime for reasons of 'free speech?'

The rationale seems ridiculous.