Anti-gay street group's video of supposed violence fits its record of entrapment

TFP street group creates questionable incidents of alleged 'pro-gay' violence.

Peter Sprigg, the National Organization for Marriage (and no doubt many others in the religious right) are touting the following video of a religious right organization supposedly being attacked by those who favor marriage equality:



If you don't want to seen the entire video (called Attacked by Tolerance), I don't blame you.  It merely shows snippets of incidents We don't really see many of these incidents in their entirety. This is what its summary says:

In this video, volunteers with the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) describe how they were violently assaulted by pro-homosexual "marriage" advocates while supporting traditional marriage on college campuses and in the public square.

No doubt, TFP hopes to make the video go viral and it probably will. But let's put some truth in. No doubt, Sprigg, NOM, and other who push this video will omit the following facts:

What exactly is the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property (TFP)? David Badash of The New Civil Rights Movement, a pro-gay blog, did some research and found the following:

According to their website,

TFP Student Action is a project of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property. Founded in 1973, the American TFP was formed to resist, in the realm of ideas, the liberal, socialist and communist trends of the times and proudly affirm the positive values of tradition, family and private property. The American TFP was inspired by the work of the Brazilian intellectual and man of action Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira.

What We Do

Networking with thousands of students and concerned parents, TFP Student Action defends traditional moral values on college campuses. Inspired by the teachings of the Holy Catholic Church, TFP volunteers are on the front lines of the culture war, working to restore the values of Christian civilization.

TFP activities are carried out by 75 full-time volunteers and have the support of 120,000 members nationwide. The director of TFP Student Action is John Ritchie.

Now, here’s what else you need to know about TFP.

According to the UN Refugee Agency, “[i]n a 1986 article, The Washington Post described TFP as an “all-male, extreme right-wing group with chapters in 13 countries” (15 May 1986). The Brazil-based organization was financed mainly by wealthy South American families and supported the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile (ibid.). It was banned for its paramilitary activities in Venezuela, where it was implicated in 1984 in a plot to assassinate the Pope, a charge that the group denied.”

 Now the following is what I have discovered - TFP has a history of creating contrived incidents of supposed violence by gay equality supporters and videotaping these alleged incidents for use by religious right groups.

In June of last year, the organization claimed that it was attacked in New York by gay equality supporters who tore up its anti-gay banner and injured a member with a beer bottle. At the time, TFP's press release said 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.

I pointed out several problems with this video.

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.


In April of that same year, TFP was protesting at Brown University. NOM implied that TFP were the victims of supposedly intolerant gay equality supporters via video on its blog. However, Badash, said that the video looked selectively edited.


And an article in the Brown Daily Herald, the college newspaper, did not report any incidents of violence. It did report the fact that the students rallied against TFP  in large, but peaceful manner.

This is not to condone violence against anyone, mind you. But I don't think that it's farfetched for me to say that the video above is bunk and full of contrived incidents of entrapment pushed to create victims where none exist.