Oct 11, 2007Quickie Link: Thoughts on Criminalization of Hate Speech -- By Johann Hari
By vanrozenheim
If Gay people demand laws that protect us from "incitement to hatred", it's hard to object when religious people demand and receive similar group rights for themselves. Yet these parallel protections have been a disaster for Gay people. The major Western religions are all based on pre-modern hallucinatory "Holy Books" which contain calls to kill Gay people. But the legal framework protecting religion makes it increasingly difficult to call these the poisonous, repellent works of fiction that they are. I hate these texts. I call on others to hate these texts. Yes, I "incite" them to do so. Under the existing law, that is a crime. Gay people should be seeking to repeal that law – not extend it to ourselves.
