People's Court

The case of Jack Hampton, the anti-gay Texas state district judge, has spotlighted not only the persistent and virulent hatred against gays and lesbians in our society, but also the lack of special protection these citizens have in the criminal justice system.

In late November, Hampton sentenced Richard Lee Bednarski to 30 years in prison for murdering two men--even though a lifetime sentence was the maximum. When asked by a Dallas reporter why Bednarski had not received a harsher verdict, Hampton replied that he had been lenient in part because the killer's victim were gay.

"These two guys that got killed wouldn't have been killed if they hadn't been cruising the streets picking up teen-age boys," Hampton told the Dallas Times Herald in December. "I don't care much for queers cruising the streets picking up teen-age boys. I've got a teen-age boy."

Hampton said he might have given the murderer a lengthier sentence if he had killed "a couple of housewives out shopping, not hurting anybody."

To anyone who believes in even rudimentary nations of justice, it is clearly disturbing that Hampton let a clearly disturbing that Hampton let a convicted killer off with a lighter sentence because of sexual orientation of his victims.

The flaws in Hampton's logic are particularly disturbing because they betray a widely held belief that homosexual relations somehow "hurt" others. This reasoning is an implicit approval of the violent actions against gays epitomized by this murder.

BUT what is even more frightening is that a bigot like Hampton had no qualms about flaunting his hatred. All judges are elected officials in Texas, but Hampton said his remarks would not hurt him in his campaign for re-election in 1990. Although he did not admit it, Hampton probably thinks he might score some political points in a society where discrimination against gays and lesbians is acceptable.

Hampton is willing to justify his anti-gay actions by openly expressing his views, no matter how potentially offensive they are. But for every Jack Hampton there are many, many more judges who might hand down similar rulings without expressing their prejudices to a reporter.

Under current law, when the Justice Department finds that state or local authorities are not effectively investigating or fairly handling a racially motivated crime it can take over the probe and try defendants in a federal court. This accords Blacks and other racial minority members some protection against local officials who may not be overly sympathetic to their rights.

Gays and lesbians have no such protection.

After being evicted, fired or beaten because of their sexual orientation, these gay citizens are left to fend for themselves before prejudiced state courts and officials. The problem is becoming more pressing as more gay litigants appear in cases related to AIDS, the treatment of which has been continuously tainted with homophobia.

Congress should pass legislation which would protect gay men and lesbians. Federal authorities should be permitted to take over investigations of hate-related crimes where there is a possibility justice will not be properly dispensed.

But such legislation would not be a panacea, Kevin Cathcart, an attorney with the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders in Boston, said in an interview. More than half of all federal judges on the bench today were appointed by Ronald Reagan, not exactly a friend to gays and lesbians over the past eight years.

LIKE any case of unfair treatment against a minority group, the only way to completely eradicate bias against gays and lesbians is education. The Hampton controversy has one bright spot--it has received nationwide media coverage, showing the country the daily ordeal gays and lesbians must endure in their ordinary lives.

This month the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct will review the Hampton case, and there is talk in the state legislature of impeachment. Cathcart says Hampton will probably not be removed before his term runs out--it will be up to the voters in Dallas to send the judge packing, and it will be up to the gay community to continue agitation and publicity toward that end.

"Judge Hampton said it himself: 'No one will remember this in 1990,'" William Waybourn, president of the Dallas Gay Alliance, has said. "But we will remember."

Everyone else should remember too. Such ignorance and violent sentiments cannot be tolerated in society at large, much less in elected officials who are vested with the grave responsibility of dispensing justice blindly.

Hampton is now a symbol of a judiciary infected with biases. Hopefully, when we have purged our society of hatred against gays and lesbians, Hampton will be looked back on as a dinosaur, a conspicuous reminder of a troubled and intolerant time.