Rep. Gohmert stated that part of his rationale for voting against the bill is that he is afraid of "numbers" of transvestites getting between him and his office, and that he might be charged with a crime if he pushed past them to get through. Really.
But don't take our word for it. Check the Congressional Record:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2007_record&page=H4413&position=all
Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow this body will take up legislation that is referred to as hate crime legislation. On its face that sounds pretty innocuous, something we should all agree on. We are against hate....
Now, most hate crime laws refer to serious bodily injury, but not in this legislation. We refer to bodily injury. We have lowered the bar dramatically. There are some jurisdictions that would say bodily injury can be temporary, no matter how temporary. It can be a touching, a pushing.
So, in other words, if someone opposed to your position that, perhaps, was having gender identity issues, like a transvestite, got between you and your office, and there were numbers of them, and you tried to get through to your office, then, as has happened in other places, he may be inclined now to go to the Federal Government, file a criminal complaint for which you could be arrested, and that would be bodily injury sufficient to rise to that level....
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