Sunday, October 01, 2006

Hate crime or another lie?

Apparently a family in Colorado has been the victim of a hate crime. Allegedly, someone has been tampering and burning down signs they have been putting up in their yard.

These are not pro-gay signs so naturally the family is claiming that a "gay activist" is behind the crimes.

Focus on the Family is also making this claim as seen by the headline of their press release detailing the events in question - Gay Activist Starts Fire in Colorado Family's Front Yard (http://family.org/cforum/news/a0042120.cfm)

There are several questions that come up about the incident. The webpage http://www.goodasyou.org/ goes into detail about the questions, so I will just paraphrase.

For one thing - the family claims that a video camera clearly shows the face of the person committing the crime but there are no arrests.

For another thing, the article makes no mention of a police investigation.

Thirdly, as far as I have seen, no other news source has reported the crime.

Now if anyone having to do with gay activism is guilty of this crime, then they should prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. There is no excuse for arson and damaging someone's property.

However, if it turns out that this is not the case, then it would be no surprise to me. On more than one occasion, Focus on the Family, Concerned Women for America, etc. have distorted a current event to add fire to their claims about a so-called gay conspiracy.

This is clearly demonstrated by the tone of the article, which seems to milk the "gay want tolerance but can't show tolerance" angle that the anti-gay industry plays like a broken record.

The sad thing about the Colorado incident, no matter the outcome, is that the anti-gay industry will most likely use it in press releases and in front of legislative bodies as proof that we in the gay community do not deserve equal protection under the law.