Bill to increase penalties for attacks on transsexuals advances

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CARSON CITY – A bill to enhance the penalties for those who attack transsexuals has cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote.

The committee, with Democrats in the majority of the 4-3 vote, approved Senate Bill 180 and sent it to the floor of the Senate for a vote, which likely will happen next week.

The bill allows criminal sentences to be increased “regardless of the person’s assigned sex at birth.” It would add to the current law that the penalty can be increased if the assault was directed at the person because of his or her race, religion, national origin, physical or mental disability or sexual orientation.

Sen. Michael Roberson, R-Las Vegas, said the language in the bill was vague and it “will open up a can of worms.” Senate Minority Leader Mike McGinness, R-Fallon, also spoke against the bill.

The bill says the increased penalty applies in cases of “gender identity or expression means a gender-related identity, appearance, expression or behavior of a person, regardless of the person’s assigned sex at birth.”

Before the passage of the bill, the committee removed a section that would have allowed the murder of a transsexual to be used as an aggravating circumstance to justify the death penalty.