I was all prepared to write something about Texas Governor Rick Perry's phony call for the nation's governors and "Christian" leaders to pray for America because apparently we are in a "moral crisis" (again) but something from my "favorite" anti-gay activist caught my eye.
Apparently, Peter LaBarbera is
promoting a video from a bizarre anti-gay group the TFP (The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property) Student Action -
for info about that group, go here - which supposedly shows the group protesting marriage equality in New York when a "pro homosexual activist" came rushing up to destroy their banner. LaBarbera prefaces the group's press release about the incident by saying the following:
Folks, we’ve seen this nasty brand of homosexual bullying and intolerance so often that we’re no longer shocked by it. Watch the TFP Student Action video as peaceful TFP members shout “Aggressor!” as this troubled man walks up and destroys their banner, in Fairport, New York. Imagine if a bunch of pro-family activists did this to a pro-”gay banner” banner! (CBS, ABC, NBC, and CNN would be lining up to tell the story.)
The press release itself says the following:
As young TFP volunteers stood at the corner of Main Street and Church Street with signs, a pro-homosexualist hurled himself against the group’s thirteen foot long banner inscribed with “God’s Marriage = 1 Man & 1 Woman.” The banner, held by three volunteers, was knocked down and violently torn to pieces.
Watch video footage of the attack HERE.
The assailant also threatened to destroy the group’s cameras used to document their campaigns for moral values. “I’ll smash your camera,” he said.
Approaching another TFP volunteer who was holding a sign that read “Honk for Traditional Marriage,” the aggressor said: “Are you going to give me your sign, or do I need to rip it up too!?”
In a separate incident at the same demonstration, another supporter of “gay marriage” threw a beer bottle at TFP volunteer Michael Shibler from a moving vehicle. The glass bottle hit him on the forehead, causing it to swell and bleed. Local police are investigating both incidents.
“These bully tactics do not even slightly dampen my resolve to continue promoting the truth about marriage in charity. Our cause is noble and we will win,” said Shibler.
There are just a few things I have a problem with. First of all, while the video shows someone rushing up and ripping the banner, it has not made clear who this man is.
We don't know if the man is a "pro-gay activist" or just some random nut who doesn't like the group's outfits.
The second problem I have is the alleged incident with the beer bottle. This what the press release said:
In a separate incident at the same demonstration, another supporter of “gay marriage” threw a beer bottle at TFP volunteer Michael Shibler from a moving vehicle. The glass bottle hit him on the forehead, causing it to swell and bleed. Local police are investigating both incidents.
But look at the video at 1:37 when Shibler first announces that he was hit. Maybe it's my vision, but it doesn't look like to me that Shibler's forehead is swelling or bleeding. And the only thing we see of the incident is a bottle lying on the ground.
Now it
could be that members of this group are being truthful about the incident.
But then again, look who is promoting it.
Peter LaBarbera does have a track record for trying to create moral panics about rampant homosexuals which turn out to be nothing more than incidents either set up by him or blown out of proportion by his fevered imagination - such as when he
falsely claimed that GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network) was promoting "gay sex" to teens on Facebook.
It's not accidental that the Southern Poverty Law Center
declared his organization,
Americans for Truth, to be an anti-gay hate group.
And religious right groups have on occasion manipulated incidents of public chaos to demonize the entire lgbt community.
In 2008 after the Prop 8 vote in California, a video of a elderly woman getting a styrofoam cross ripped out of her hand during a protest of this vote was played continuously through conservative or right-wing channels as an example of how "violent" and "intolerant" gays were. Mike Huckabee even mentioned the incident on the ABC talk show "The View."
However, no one gave the
entire story, i.e. the violence occurred after the woman, Phyllis Burgess, had knocked down a disabled man in an attempt to get on camera.
By the time the entire story did come out, the religious right had gotten enough mileage to paint the entire lgbt community as mean-spirited and aggressive.
And that sounds like what's happening now. We don't know what exactly happened in the incident regarding the marriage equality protest. It could have been a incident of violence by a gay man. But then again, it could have been just random. And then again, it could have been staged.
And the beer bottle claim is extremely specious as far as I am concerned.
Folks should reserve judgement until the police investigation is done. That is if there is an investigation. According to TFP Student Action's press release, the police were called.
That's something we don't know for sure. But thanks to the press release, we
do know for sure where to donate money (preferably $79 or more) to the group.
I'm just saying . . .
UPDATE - I left a message on the group's page asking for details. Naturally it wasn't posted.
