Liberty Counsel tries to stop firestorm over anti-lynching bill by blaming the press

Mat Staver

According to my online blogging colleague (and the first GLAAD Media Award recipient for Outstanding Blog), Joe Jervis, anti-LGBTQ hate group the Liberty Counsel is learning the price of being too homophobic.

After being the subject of a media firestorm because his group's desire to have gays removed from a federal anti-lynching bill, Liberty Counsel head Mat Staver is blaming a familiar scapegoat. The press.

Some media have falsely reported that Liberty Counsel is opposed to banning lynching, or, opposes banning lynching of LGBT people. Such reporting is false, reckless, and offensive. In fact, Mat Staver said, “No one can or should oppose a bill that bans lynching.” Staver continued, “We oppose lynching across the board for any person. Period!” 

“The bill in question created a list of protected categories, thus limiting the application of the law. Lynching should be prohibited no matter the person’s reason for committing this violent crime,” concluded Staver. 

Liberty Counsel has received death threats as a direct result of the false media narrative. One person, whose identity is being traced, said “All LC leaders must die.” The media and those with a political axe to grind must exercise caution when reporting or using social media. False reporting endangers lives.

However, as Jervis points out in his wonderful rebuttal of Staver's statement, the initial story came from another anti-LGBTQ source - the American Family Association's One News Now.

You can see that here and also the fact that One News Now closed the comments thread after the Liberty Counsel was getting grilled by those posting there

So is the Liberty Counsel accusing another anti-LGBTQ hate group of false reporting?


Related post - Liberty Counsel's desire to removes gays from anti-lynching legislation the latest chapter of its bigoted history

Liberty Counsel's desire to remove gays from anti-lynching legislation the latest chapter of its bigoted history

For years, Liberty Counsel officials got away with pushing homophobic mess like this. But its public opposition to adding LGBTQs to federal anti-lynching legislation has opened eyes.

It was simply a matter of time, but finally the anti-LGBTQ hate group the Liberty Counsel did something which is causing it to catch hell in the mainstream media.

Evangelical group wants gays removed from anti-lynching bill 

You will notice that above link comes from NBC News, i.e. major mainstream press coverage. It's one thing to have watchdog sites like Media Matters and bloggers like myself constantly calling out your lies. But being spotlit in such a way by a major news network - particularly on an issue such as this and taking the side that you do - introduces you to an enormous readership. And going on record wanting LGBTQs to be removed from an anti-lynching bill is not the first impression so you want to make. Too late, though. For the record, let's explore the other vile things done and said about LGBTQ community by the Liberty Counsel:


Liberty Counsel President Says She’ll Bring A Gun Into Target’s Bathroom - There was the time when Liberty Counsel president Anita Staver said that she would be carrying a loaded gun in Target's bathrooms in response to the chain's transgender-inclusive bathroom policy.

Staver: The Boy Scouts Will Now Become ‘A Playground For Pedophiles’ - Then there was the time when Liberty Counsel official Mat Staver (the husband of Anita from the news brief above) -channeled the old but successful "gays want to get their hands on your children" lie in response to the Boy Scouts lifting their ban on gay Scoutmasters.

Barber & Staver Want To See Russian-Like Anti-Gay Laws ‘Right Here In The United States’- Then there was the time that Staver and another Liberty Counsel official Matt Barber, suggested that America needed the same type of laws Putin uses to persecute the Russian LGBTQ community.

And speaking of Matt Barber, he is responsible for the above cartoon - 'Christian' conservative spokesman posts nasty homophobic cartoon