Doug Montgomery

Following the murder of Blaze Bernstein, the gay University of Pennsylvania student from Orange County, the California state senator from his district has proposed legislation to increase the penalty for capital crimes motivated by gender or sexual orientation. As it stands now, murdering someone because of their gender or sexual orientation does not carry additional penalties. This did not sit right with State Senator Janet Nguyen (R-Garden Grove.) “This means that under current law, committing a crime against someone who is gay could be called a hate crime, which carries its own lower penalties, but murdering someone specifically because they […]