Senate bill would expand protection against hate crimes

DailyUW.com – By Kaitlin Strohschein

Although there have been no reported hate crimes on the UW campus for the past four years, there is no way to know if that means there were no attacks or threats made against transgender students. That is because transgender people in the state of Washington are not protected by hate crime laws.

In October 2008, several Washington State University (WSU) students were attacked because of their gender expression.

The attacks encouraged the Washington Student Lobby (WSL) to push for a more inclusive definition of sexual orientation, said UW student legislative liaison David Iseminger.

Senate Bill 5952 would expand that definition.