Hate Crimes Bill Passes Legislature With Bipartisan Support

by Donald Eng CTNewsJunkie

HARTFORD, CT — The state’s numerous hate crimes would be consolidated into a single law under the provisions of a bill that passed the General Assembly with wide bipartisan support. A similar bill passed the House last year but died in the Senate when the session ended.

Senate Bill 90, An Act Revising and Consolidating the Hate Crimes Statutes, passed the state House of Representatives 139 – 8 Tuesday morning. The bill had previously passed the Senate 36-0 on April 28.

“Hate crimes are not ordinary crimes,” said state Rep. Steven Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport, the House chair of the Judiciary Committee. “The anger, anxiety and vulnerability ratchet across our neighborhoods and entire communities.”

When someone is attacked because of who they are — be it their race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation — the harm extends beyond the victim and sends a message of fear and exclusion to everyone who shares that identity, he said.

Hate crimes have risen nearly 50% in Connecticut since 2021, Stafstrom said. He added that there were 130 such crimes reported in the first three quarters of 2024. Nationally, he said, hate crimes had doubled in the last decade.

In addition to consolidating the state’s hate crimes under one law, SB 90 also requires a review of hate crime penalties by the CT Sentencing Commission, with a report due back to the Judiciary Committee for the 2027 legislative session.

FILE PHOTO — State Rep. Craig Fishbein speaks during debate on HB 7042 at the State Capitol on April 30, 2025. Credit: Donald Eng / CTNewsJunkie

State Rep. Craig Fishbein, R-Wallingford, the Judiciary Committee’s ranking Republican, said he supported the bill, although he disagreed with the belief that some hate crimes could have their penalties revised downward.

“Certainly when somebody attacks someone merely based upon some immutable characteristic of that individual, and not anything else, those are some of the most heinous crimes that we could possibly envision,” he said. 

The bill now heads to Gov. Ned Lamont for his expected signature.