I would like to comment on the recent letters to the editor regarding House Bill 1493, the hate-crimes bill, and clear up some misconceptions. The Statewide Pennsylvania Rights Coalition, of which I'm managing director, lobbied to add categories of sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, physical and mental disabilities and ancestry along with the wording "actual or perceived" before each category providing protections for Pennsylvania's most vulnerable citizens. The notion that this act will increase violence or acts of hatred against Christians is misguided at best. Even if for some reason it did, House Bill 1493 is the exact type of legislation that would be enacted to protect that person and stiffen the penalty against the perpetrator. Any act of hate is criminal and should be investigated and prosecuted equally. The most recent FBI hate-crime statistics from 2000 reported 16.7 percent of the hate crimes reported were based on sexual orientation; keep in mind that reports are voluntary.

Statistics on gender aren't collected by the FBI. However, in the last year alone, there have been 27 reported murders in the U.S. against transgender persons. It's legislation such as House Bill 1493 that can begin to eradicate this type of violence by making a clear statement that hatred and violence based on ignorance will no longer be tolerated.