Is Violence Coming?
I want to highlight two stories I ran across that may seem unrelated or too closely related- I’m not sure. The first I saw via a Google Alert and appears on a conservative/Christian site:
Pro-family activists have drawn attention to a disturbing exchange on a homosexual blog run by Joe Jervis of New York. The exchange takes place between individuals named Fritz and Tex in the comment section of a blog discussing the Maine homosexual marriage defeat and pro-family activists Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel and Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality. LaBarbera says the two commentators discussed carrying out acts of terrorism against Christians.
Seems the wingnuts are working to portray the queers as terroristic violence prone crazies. I read it and chuckled a bit, expecting that it was based on a few comments pulled somewhat out of context and I believe probably express some folks venting their frustration more than anything else. For a split second, I wondered about trying to fact check it- was the FBI really investigating this? But at about 3/4 of that second, I decided I really wouldn’t know how to fact check it, and doubted it was worth the effort. The wingnuts are going to believe what they want to believe no matter how much light you shine on the misinformation and the fear. And even if it was true, freedom of the speech allows for people to express things like this without it being a terrorist threat.
Without a doubt the level of frustration is very high for many gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender folks. Not everyone seems to be taking it seriously enough. We (in the most general sense of the GLBTQ communities) have had enough of being treated as less than equal Americans, and we want our equal rights, and we are not interested in continuing to wait and be poorly treated. It might be true that we understand that change takes time, but there is a difference between accepting the slow progress of change, and waiting forever for too little that never arrives.
What’s most funny about the story is the way it demonizes gay rights activists as if we are monstrous and dangerous,, while it fails to even acknowledge the violence, hatred and inequity perpetrated upon GLBTQ people every day.
Homosexual blog forecasts violence against Christians
Then I forgot about this story until this evening, I saw a story posted to Twitter:
Memphis police arrested 23-year-old Ross Burton early Wednesday morning as he and another man attempted to set fire to the rainbow flag (see singed rope in photo, above) at the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center…
Not only did these two men attempt to burn down the rainbow flag, they fought with police officers, and attempted to take a gun from one of the officers:
When police officers approached the men, an altercation ensued, and one suspect attempted to disarm an officer. Additional police were dispatched and some reportedly received lacerations and abrasions from the struggle.
This attempt to demonize as violent is also the main theme in another story found on another wingnut site. Of course, this is really the same story as above, except, here linked in a way to the horrible shootings at Mt Hood.
Is violence coming or is it here already? Violence in the lies and misinformation if not more.
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