Neither Deaf Gahan nor Mike Hall are present as stellar rally in support of an Indiana hate crimes bill takes place at Caesartennial Park.

This Sunday: "Southern Indiana Residents Rally to 'Protect Hoosiers From Hate,' Support Comprehensive Bias Crimes Law."

After a one-week weather delay, we had a pleasant spring day. The rally was short, mostly bipartisan and straight to the point.

The pay-to-play hierarchy of the Floyd County Democratic Party didn't seem to be very interested in the proceedings, but we've some to expect very little from them apart from vapid posturing, so their absence wasn't a tremendous surprise.

Congrats to the organizers. It was a spirited but professionally planned event with ample substance and a communal spirit.

Southern Indiana community members to rally for hate crime law Sunday, by Rachael Krause (WAVE)

Community members in Southern Indiana will rally for hate crime law Sunday

Indiana is one of just five states without a hate crime law, it’s a statistic Hoosiers hear regularly.

Despite repeated calls for legislation to pass that would implement strong protections, lawmakers continue to show that one in five statistic is one that won’t be easily changed.

In February, the Indiana Senate approved a hate crime bill but the legislation had stripped away the list of included protections for people based on things like race, gender identity or religion. The bill has been criticized by many around the state who say without a list of protected people, the bill likely won’t be strong enough to protect victims of targeted crimes.

Joining the call to do better and propose stronger legislation is Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb ...

This Sunday: "Southern Indiana Residents Rally to 'Protect Hoosiers From Hate,' Support Comprehensive Bias Crimes Law."

Facebook event page.

(Because of expected winter weather, the rally has been rescheduled for Sunday, March 10th at Noon)

Here's the press release; see you there.

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Southern Indiana Residents Rally to “Protect Hoosiers From Hate,” Support Comprehensive Bias Crimes Law

WHAT: On Sunday, March 3rd at noon, Southern Indiana Pride along with the Indiana Forward campaign will host a rally at Bicentennial Park in New Albany (118 E. Spring Street) to call on Indiana Statehouse legislators to support a strong hate crime bill that includes a list of characteristics supported by Governor Eric Holcomb. The rally will be bipartisan in nature and will include Southern Indiana political and faith leaders, business owners, students, and activists.

Hoosiers from all over Indiana were let down by the State Senate’s refusal to pass a comprehensive hate crime bill. Senate Bill 12 is not a hate crime bill. The enumerated protections were stripped from the bill after legislators approved Sen. Freeman’s (R Indianapolis) amendment. The protections stripped from the bill included a list of personal characteristics supported by Governor Eric Holcomb that included race, religion, ethnicity, national origin, disability, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity. The bill now goes to Indiana’s House of Representatives. Our hope is that Indianapolis will listen to Hoosiers and amend the bill so that it protects all Hoosiers from hate.

WHEN: Sunday, March 3, 2019 | 12 p.m.

WHERE: Bicentennial Park, 118 E. Spring Street, New Albany, IN 47150

WHO: Speakers at the rally will include:

Councilman Al Knable (R-New Albany)
Rep. Ed Clere (R-New Albany)
Rep. Rita Fleming (D-Jeffersonville)
Michael Leppert - Indiana Forward Campaign For Hate Crime Legislation
Jason Applegate (D-Candidate for New Albany City Council)
Miguel Hampton (D-Candidate for Jeffersonville City Council)
Pastor John E. Manzo (St. Marks UCC)
Cade Gibson (Jeffersonville HS)
Elijah Mahan (Roncalli HS Shelly’s Voice Leader)

WHY: Bias crimes are on the rise across the country, but Indiana remains one of just five states without a clear and specific bias crimes law. Gov. Eric Holcomb has repeatedly called for bias crimes legislation and has stated that reaching consensus on this issue is his top priority in 2019. More than 74% percent of Hoosiers support a bias crimes law, including a majority of Republicans, according to a January 2019 Indiana Chamber statewide poll. This support echoed by employers, who report that the state’s lack of a bias crimes law fuels a negative perception of the state that hinders their talent recruitment efforts and economic development opportunities.

Belated recognition to city council for its hate crimes resolution.

Someday someone will write an entertaining History of New Albany Common Council Non-Binding Resolutions, in which a panel of experts will seek to unravel the reasoning behind CM Scott Blair's yes/no votes, as opposed to principled abstentions, on such resolutions.

I've never been able to detect a pattern, but then again, I haven't attended a meeting for a while, and maybe a new paradigm has occurred. Insofar as the council's recent hate crimes resolution is concerned, it's wonderful and bipartisan.

Thumbs up.

At the same time, am I the only observer puzzled by Deaf Gahan's willingness to allow a Republican to take credit for opposing hate crimes? Perhaps Hizzoner hasn't noticed any of the swastikas -- or the homeless people, or the opioid epidemic. There's bound to be a demented twist.

By the way, the Green Mouse informs us that Blair will be the next council president come 2019, this being (p)art of the deal securing his vote for Al Knable in 2018. But whose bidding will David Barksdale slavishly spin this time around? Only the shadow knows, and I may be compelled to attend that first January meeting, if only to drain a flask.

New Albany passes hate crimes resolution, by Chris Morris (Biblioteca de Tom May)

NEW ALBANY — Indiana is one of five states in the country without a hate crimes law. Al Knable said it's time for that to change.

Knable, president of the New Albany City Council, drafted a resolution recently supporting Gov. Eric Holcomb's push for the Indiana General Assembly to pass a hate crimes bill next session. The city council unanimously passed the non-binding resolution 9-0 earlier this month and Mayor Jeff Gahan was expected to sign it before it was sent off to the governor's office.

"The governor pushed for that last year and it failed. It didn't get much traction," Knable said. "The governor is still making this a key piece of his legislative agenda in 2019. It's been on my radar for several years."

Holcomb said at the the One Southern Indiana's Governor's Luncheon event that a hate crimes bill was "critically important" ...

Eric Holcomb, hate crime legislation and Mack Trucks.

The topic is hate crime, and as an aside, it's instructive to consider Governor Eric Holcomb's feat of juggling.

Holcomb was praised by the customarily milquetoast News and Tribune for his stand in favor of hate crime legislation, then opened for Donald Trump in Evansville and was almost completely ignored by statewide media.

Now, it just might be that so few states remain without hate crime legislation that there's no political capital to be expended by Holcomb in conceding the inevitable.

And, there is no way Holcomb would NOT warm up the crowd at an in-state rally for a president and senatorial candidate of his own party, with the latter poised to topple a Democratic incumbent.

Perhaps there are some tightropes to be walked, though in a state as red as this one, they're as wide as an Ohio River bridge. As always, the devil lurks in the semantics, but a hate crime law is overdue, and if the sitting governor supports it, let's get it done.

Following are two local chain newspaper articles on the topic, neither of them authored by Tom May. That fact alone is noteworthy.

OUR OPINION: Hate crime law overdue in Indiana, by the editorial team at the Tom and Maybune

 ... For too long Hoosier lawmakers have been content with giving only lip service to acts of hate. Their failure to act has left us self-righteous — we’re “shocked” and “saddened” at these “senseless” acts — but impotent.

No more, if Gov. Holcomb has his way. He responded to the hate vandalism with determined eloquence.

“No law can stop evil, but we should be clear that our state stands with the victims and their voices will not be silenced,” Holcomb said. “For that reason it is my intent that we get something done this next legislative session, so Indiana can be 1 of 46 states with hate crimes legislation—and not 1 of 5 states without it.”

The other four states void of hate crimes laws are Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina and Wyoming.

Praiseworthy and in-depth coverage of the issue is here, so check it out.

In Southern Indiana, victims of hate say it's a crime in need of a law, by Aprile Rickert

WHAT IS A HATE CRIME?

The FBI defines a hate crime, for the purpose of collecting statistics, as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.” Although the Bureau recognizes that hate alone is not a crime, and free speech rights are protected.

Indiana's neighboring states of Kentucky, Illinois and Ohio already have hate crime legislation in place, although the language varies on who is specifically protected.

Dunman: "'Blue Lives’ do matter, but proposed bill is misguided and tone deaf."

Yet another well-reasoned commentary destined to be ignored, but thanks from those of us who read.

Commentary: ‘Blue Lives’ do matter, but proposed bill is misguided and tone deaf, by Joe Dunman (Insider Louisville)

... Of course, emergency responders and police officers do very important work. But if that’s the prime motivation for adding them to the hate crimes law, why not also add doctors and nurses? Or utility workers? Or pilots? If “all lives matter,” why not add every risky job to the list? Why single out any particular form of employment?

"It is more than about time, 36 years later, to bid a proper farewell to Vernon Kroening."

I almost missed "A Proper Farewell." There is a compelling poignancy to this story of forgotten history, of the music director at a church entirely unworthy of him, and the little-known Dutch dorman, extending to the deranged shooter Crumpley, who spent the rest of his life in secure psychiatric hospitals.

The same writer provides further background here:

New York’s Own Anti-Gay Massacre, Now Barely Remembered.

A Proper Farewell, Finally, for a Victim of an Anti-Gay Rampage in New York, by David W. Dunlap (NYT)

Thirty-six years after Vernon Kroening, music director of St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, was killed outside the Ramrod bar in the West Village, friends remembered him as “all-embracing.”

It is more than about time, 36 years later, to bid a proper farewell to Vernon Kroening.

Mr. Kroening, a Minnesota native and former Benedictine monk, was the music director, choirmaster and organist of St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Greenwich Village.

He was 32 years old. He loved the liturgy. He loved the church. And he loved other men.

On the night of Nov. 19, 1980, heading home from a musical rehearsal, Mr. Kroening stopped at the Ramrod bar in the West Village. That placed him in the line of fire when Ronald K. Crumpley, a homophobic former transit police officer and minister’s son, went on a murderous rampage through the neighborhood, shooting a submachine gun indiscriminately into a crowd of men standing in front of the Ramrod and Sneakers, another gay bar, on West Street.

Mr. Kroening was killed instantly. Jorg Wenz, a 24-year-old doorman at the Ramrod, died hours later at St. Vincent’s Hospital. Six other men were wounded that night.

Prejudice and institutional reticence held The New York Times back from giving faces to these victims and telling their stories at the time, as it did with those who were killed at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., in June.