Posted: January 31, 2003

Cincinnati Slaying Sparks Push for Hate Crime Law

Cincinnati--- The city's final homicide of 2002 is driving an effort to add gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders to Cincinnati's hate crime ordinance.

Gregory Beauchamp, a 21-year-old black gay man, was shot to death from a car around 9 pm on New Year's Eve. He had been walking to Venus nightclub in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood with a group of friends, two of them in drag.

According to survivors of the attack, anti-gay epithets were shouted from the car before the gunfire.

Police consider the murder an anti-gay hate crime, but neither Cincinnati or Ohio's hate crime laws include sexual orientation, so no sentencing enhancements would be possible in the case.

But Cincinnati's institutional intimidation ordinance could change if city council approves a bill sponsored by member John Cranley.

Cranley introduced a bill January 23 that would add gender, age, disability and sexual orientation to the ordinance. Gender" is defined to include gender identity. The measure presently includes race, color, religion, and national origin.

The ordinance was originally proposed in 1999, but did not pass.

Cranley has a fire in his gut because of Beauchamp's murder, said former Stonewall Cincinnati board member Bill Bridges. He is leading the effort for the ordinance with current board member Doreen Cudnik.

Beauchamp's murder would not have been covered by the new measure, as city ordinances can only cover misdemeanors. But it would provide enhanced penalties for anti-gay assault, menacing, telephone harassment, and vandalism.

Bridges said a key to passage is working through leaders of the African-American community to influence members of council. Doing that has meant mobilization of black lesbians and gays.

Organized opposition to the bill is coming from the anti-gay Citizens for Community Values and the Republican Party, according to Bridges.

CCV is also currently opposing a human rights ordinance that includes sexual orientation and gender in Covington, Ky., across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. The group's leadership was the driving force behind a 1993 initiative that added Article 12 to the city charter. The article forbids any city ordinance that gives minority or protected status to people based on sexual orientation or preference.

Presently five other Ohio cities include gays and lesbians in their hate crime ordinances. They are Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo, Lakewood and Athens. Toledo's measure includes gender identity.