Should sexual perverts have more legal protection than you? According to our elected officials, the answer is yes. The House just passed a Senate bill, expanding the definition of federal “hate crime,” last Wednesday. Special rights and benefits for sexual deviants: homosexuals, lesbians, and transsexuals, have now been codified into federal law. But will the new laws actually reduce hate in America?

“I urge members on both sides of the aisle to act on the important civil rights issue by passing this legislation to protect all of our citizens from violent acts of intolerance,” President Barack Obama said before the vote (emphasis mine).

The new hate laws do give special legal status and benefits to those engaging in immoral sexual behavior, but contrary to President Obama’s assertion, they do not protect all of our citizens.

Why shouldn’t all Americans be equal under the law?

For example, under the hate crime laws, a person who assaults a minority while shouting derogatory racist or “homophobic” insults would face federal prosecution and receive a much harsher penalty than if that person had assaulted a heterosexual of Caucasian descent.

Rep. Randy Forbes of Virginia describes this new law this way: If Miss California had slapped the homosexual judge who derided her on stage (and later across the Internet), under the new law she could be indicted as a “violent hate criminal,” facing a possible 10 years in prison. But if the homosexual judge had slapped her, she would have had no special protection.

Why are lawmakers so intent on pushing legislation for homosexuals? America has numerous protections, rights and freedoms guaranteed to minorities—the same laws that protect the rest of us. How is justice served when a person who kills a white person gets less jail time than someone who kills an Asian or African American? Murder is murder. And the deterrent against it and penalty for it should be the same for all.

Additionally, there is scant evidence to suggest that homosexuals or cross-dressers do not currently receive equal protection under the law. More likely, under the politically correct influence within the justice system today, they may be more inclined to receive preferential treatment. Incidents of hate crimes have fallen across America for the past 10 years, according to the fbi. And America is more open and accepting of deviant behavior and multiculturalism than it has ever been. America has a half-black president. It has openly homosexual members of the Senate and the House. Homosexual judges rule from the bench. Affirmative action and political correctness in the workplace make it extremely risky for many employers to discriminate.

There is nothing new about politicians pandering to special-interest groups, but what makes these laws so dangerous—besides the fact that they promote deviant sexual behavior that destroys families—is that they divide America into groups of more-favored versus the less. Legislating such laws sends the signal that some people are more important or “more equal” under the law than others.

These hate laws are creating the very thing they are supposed to combat.

Few things stir anger and resentment as quickly as perceived or real injustice. Take the case of the New Haven, Connecticut, firefighters. In the past, New Haven used test scores to determine if a firefighter was qualified to become a lieutenant or captain. However, the city decided to scrap those tests because too few minorities scored high enough to pass.

Of the 118 people who took the most recent test, in 2003, 56 passed. The top 15 high scorers qualified for the lieutenant and captain positions. However, 14 of the top scorers were Caucasian, and one was of Hispanic descent. Since no African Americans or Asians qualified, city officials decided the test was somehow racist and threw out the results in order to promote black firefighters.

The city was so afraid of being labeled racist that it was willing to promote minorities—regardless of merit—at the expense of sacrificing the safety of New Haven’s inhabitants.

The 15 firefighters who were passed over for promotion sued the city on charges that they were the victims of reverse discrimination. The case is currently before the U.S. Supreme Court. In case you are wondering if the test really was racist, the test syllabus was derived from nationally recognized fire science and tactical textbooks and was composed with the input and approval of the fire department’s top two officials, one of whom is black. Additionally, the candidates took verbal examinations in front of panels dominated by minorities (each of the 10 panels had only one white assessor).

The Obama administration has said it sides with the city, but recommends allowing the lawsuit to proceed on a limited basis. Some business interests have also sided with the city. Why? They are worried that if the court decides in favor of the white and Hispanic firefighters, they would face not only the racial discrimination lawsuits from minorities they are already dealing with, but also from those of Caucasian descent too, according to the Associated Press.

What a mess. But it is going to get messier now that homosexuals, transgenders, and other sexual deviants will have federal hate laws giving them special rights.

America may be about to find that merit-based tests are not just supposedly racist, but also “homophobic.”

The new expanded federal hate laws also have the potential to muzzle free speech, especially regarding freedom of religion.

Churches, synagogues and mosques—anyone who dares say that God regards homosexuality as a sin—could become a target under the new hate laws. According to Democratic Rep. Artur Davis of Alabama, the legislation could be used to prosecute pastors for preaching the Bible under the concept of “inducement” to violence, which is part of the new law.

For example, if an extremist were to listen to a sermon or read a piece of literature that said homosexuality was a sin, or that God killed the sodomites in Sodom and Gomorrah, and he or she then went and murdered a homosexual, the church or minister could be federally prosecuted for inciting a hate crime.

These hate laws hand the homosexual and lesbian lobby, and every other minority with an axe to grind, an industrial-grade sharpener.

The homosexual movement is rapidly progressing toward its goal, wrote Joel Hilliker in his April 15 column—the goal being “to be able to silence, with the full force of the law, anyone who objects to their immoral behavior.”

Mr. Hilliker noted that 20 states and over 180 cities and counties across the country have already passed legislation specifically banning discrimination against homosexuals and, in most cases, transsexuals, prior to the passage of the federal hate laws. Now the full force of this radical cultural engineering will be felt in terms of heavy lawsuits, financial penalties and castigation, as well as jail time.

But far from reducing hate or discrimination in America, legislating special-interest groups’ unique rights will only increase social friction and hate, because to achieve the ends of these groups, the means inevitably oppress others.

God is not a respecter of persons. Anciently, He commanded Israel that all Israelites were to be equal under the law. The law was not to respect certain individuals or groups more than others. “Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour” (Leviticus 19:15).

In Zechariah 7:9-10, God says, “Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother: And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.”

God loves all people, regardless or race or even sexual orientation—despite the fact that all people are sinners (Romans 3:23). But God also hates sin—and He demands that all people work to overcome it. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

And what is God’s perfect definition of sin? “[S]in is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4)—biblical law. We used to teach it to our children, but no longer. Today we have lost our understanding of what our Maker defined as right and wrong!

Bible prophecy predicted America would reach a time when justice would leave the land; a time when the nation would proudly declare its blatant, mainstream sins, and minority groups and self-interests would rule. You can read about it in Isaiah 3 and Deuteronomy 28:43-45.

The Prophet Zechariah also gives a warning for today. “But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts. … I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate” (Zechariah 7:11-14).

It is impossible to bring people together by making laws that set people apart. And no lasting peace or prosperity can come to a nation when it creates laws that are against God.

For more on how critically important the rule of law is, read our booklet No Freedom Without Law.