Robert H. Knight reports in 'Hate Crime' Laws: An Assault on Freedom, how "Hate Crime" laws threaten Christian Liberties by making it illegal to openly communicate the Biblical view of homosexuality. Examples include:
- In Philadelphia, 11 Christians were arrested and jailed overnight in 2004 for singing and preaching in a public park at a homosexual street festival. Five of them were bound over and charged with five felonies and three misdemeanors, totaling a possible 47 years in jail. These charges, based on Pennsylvania's "hate crimes" law, hung over them for months until a judge finally dismissed them.
- In Canada, a newspaper publisher and a man who placed a newspaper ad faced jail and were fined $4,500 each, merely for running an ad containing references to several Bible verses regarding homosexuality.
- A pastor in New York saw his billboard with a Bible verse on it taken down under pressure from city officials, who cited "hate crime" rhetoric.
- The San Francisco Board of Supervisors officially approved a resolution urging local media to decline to run advertisements by pro-family groups that offered hope for change to homosexuals. A liberal court then winked at this egregious violation of the First Amendment.
In 2004, the executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Matt Foreman, accusing Christians of instigating violence against homosexuals, stated "The literal blood of thousands of gay people physically wounded by hatred during 2004 is on the hands of Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, Tony Perkins and so many others who spew hate for partisan gain and personal enrichment." Knight documents how this "rhetoric" is a gross misrepresentation of the facts, as outlined in a National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs study.
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