Redundant Laws and Gays’ Lives

* Re “The Case of the Missing Pool Fencing Statute” (Oct. 3):

The Board of Supervisors is being asked to reenact a deleted law requiring pools to be fenced despite the fact that California has a state code requiring the same. The reason for this redundant legislation, as given by county officials, is that people--especially children--are still being hurt, and that there is therefore a need for “maximum safety requirements.” Yet every day, gay citizens are beaten and sometimes killed in hate crimes while legislators decry the need for specifically anti-gay federal hate crime legislation as redundant and unnecessary. Is this the type of value judgment politicians are trying to make on the legislative worth of people’s lives?

GABRIEL McGOWAN

Fullerton