http://www.freecongress.org/commentaries/2005/051104.asp
"..."Was House approval of the Conyers Amendment really a “huge step” toward progress? The Amendment is intended to criminalize “actual or perceived” sexual orientation, gender or gender identity as Federal “hate crime.”...The lobby for homosexual rights claims that the passage of Federal hate-crime legislation relating to sexual orientation is imperative. However, criminals who commit assault and murder usually are not the most logical people. If they are not deterred by existing law why would they be deterred by additional penalties for commission of a Federal “hate crime?” ...in 1992 the Ohio Supreme Court overturned a hate crime law because “ Once the proscribed act is committed, the government criminalizes the underlying thought by enhancing the penalty based on viewpoint. If the legislature can enhance a penalty for crimes committed ‘by reason of racial bigotry,’ why not ‘by reason of opposition to abortion, war, or any other political or moral viewpoint?’” -Stephen M. Lilienthal, Nov. 4, 2005