(Columbia, SC) -The South Carolina House is advancing hate crimes legislation.
The bill would add penalties for those who commit a violent crime against a person based on race, color, religion, sex, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, or disability.
The bill is named the Clementa C. Pinckney Hate Crimes Act after the pastor and senator who was one of nine people killed by a white supremacist at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston in 2015.
South Carolina is currently one of just two states without some sort of hate crimes law on the books.