ALERT UPDATE: LANGUAGE REMOVED TO PROTECT CHILDREN FROM PEDOPHILES

If you remember about two weeks ago, I wrote about my concerns that the House Democrats had removed a section from the Minnesota Human Rights Act in their Public Safety and Judicial omnibus bill.??This removal could allow the potential for an argument to be made that pedophiles are a protected class under the human rights act.?

I was happy to report at that time that a Republican amendment was successfully added with a 100% bipartisan vote to make clear that there is no gray area for pedophilia.??The amendment inserted clarified that, ?The physical or sexual attachment to children by an adult is not a protected class under this chapter.?

Well, I celebrated too soon.??Last night at 2:30 AM, the 500 plus page Public Safety and Judiciary conference committee report was released. This is the final bill that will come before the House and Senate and was crafted by an all DFL conference committee.??THEY REMOVED THAT PROTECTIVE LANGUAGE!??Our House GOP leads spoke with DFL leadership prior to the closing up of the report and the Democrats, including the Governor?s office, outright refused to keep that protective and clarifying language in.?

This removal is very intentional.??My question is, WHY???Why did they remove that language in the first place???And why now, after a 100% bipartisan House vote to add the clarifying language, would they again remove that language???Why wouldn?t we want to clarify this issue to protect our children???Words matter, especially in law.??We should make darn sure there are no potential loopholes in our laws that would allow future lawyers and judges to use this gray area to argue that pedophiles have protections under the human rights act. Our children deserve that protection!

There is little time to act.??The Senate is taking this bill up this afternoon and evening and the House will do so afterwards.??Call these swing vote senators and House leadership immediately to let them know what you think on this issue.?

Senator Rob Kupec,?651-296-3205

Senator Judy Seeberger,?651-297-8060

Senator Grant Hauschild,?651-296-1789

Rep. Melissa Hartman (Speaker),?651-296-4280?

Rep. Jamie Becker-Finn (Bill Author), 651-296-7153