Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Hate Crimes topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee hears bill to clarify 'hate bias incident' and modernize 'sexual orientation' definition
Summary
House Bill 513 would legally define noncriminal 'hate bias incidents' and widen the statutory definition of sexual orientation to include intersex, nonbinary and other identities; supporters said the changes will improve reporting and data, while members probed privacy and anonymization concerns.
Lawmakers and advocates urged the House Judiciary Committee on Feb. 10 to adopt HB 513, a bill to clarify the definition of "hate bias incident" and modernize the statutory definition of sexual orientation to reflect current identity language.
Jennifer Frederick, counsel to the Maryland Commission on Hate Crime Response and Prevention, told the panel the changes implement two recommendations from the commission’s report and would make clear which noncriminal behavior should be documented and reported to the Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center. "By explaining the noncriminal behavior that constitutes a hate bias incident under this law, law enforcement and the public across the state will gain a better understanding and have the same information around which incidents need to be reported," Frederick said.
Witnesses from the JCRC of Greater Washington, the Maryland Commission on LGBTQIA+ Affairs and individual survivors described underreporting, mixed local reporting practices and the need for consistent definitions to produce accurate statewide statistics. Jeremy Browning of the LGBTQ Commission said preliminary community surveys show high rates of bias that are not captured in official data.
Committee members asked whether new reporting categories could be used to identify individuals and how data are stored; proponents said annual reports would be anonymized and intended to reveal trends, not names. The hearing included personal testimony from Tina Jones about local council incidents she reported; she said the absence of a clear statutory definition contributed to her report not being filed in one county.
The committee heard no opposition witnesses in the recorded transcript; the hearing concluded with technical questions and no recorded committee action.
