A Pride flag, Oregon flag and U.S. flag rest on a desk in the Oregon Capitol. (Ron Cooper/Oregon Capital Chronicle)
It didn’t make sense to Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig that vandals targeting the LGBTQ+ community in his Spokane hometown couldn’t be charged with a hate crime for some of their acts if caught.
While provisions of the state’s hate crime law covered spray painting of epithets on the Odyssey Youth Movement building, pouring paint on Spokane Pride’s rainbow crosswalks did not.
That’s because under the law one can be found guilty of a hate crime if they damage or destroy the property of a “victim or another person”, and if they acted “maliciously and intentionally” because of “the victim’s race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, or mental, physical, or sensory disability.”
“Hateful defacement” of public property isn’t covered, Billig said.
Senate Bill 5917 , which Billig sponsored and passed on a 35-14 vote on Friday, would expand Washington’s hate crime law to apply to public property.