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By now, you have probably heard what happened today at the headquarters of the Family Research Council.
Earlier today, a 28-year-old man came in pretending to be an intern. On his person, he had two guns. The security guard fought him and kept him from fully using these guns, at the expense of getting wounded.
According to reports, the young man committed this act because he disagreed with the Family Research Council’s anti-gay stance.
First of all, let me say that I totally condemn what this young man did. Violence is never the answer. The security guard, who is in stable condition, is also in my prayers. He is a hero for what he did. Finally, I am glad that the situation did not get worse.
However, let me also say that while I condemn physical violence, I also condemn spiritual violence.
And in that respect, something must be said about the Family Research Council.
For years, many have said that stances and the language used by organizations like the Family Research Council against the gay community to defend these stances had the danger of empowering violent anti-gay behavior from those on the fringes of the right.
Now comes this new dynamic. It can also empower violent behavior from the fringes of the other side too.
The Family Research Council will have people to believe that it is an organization which simply stands up for family and morality. But we all know not to be true.
Somehow, consistently comparing gays to pedophiles or terrorists, claiming that gays in the military will molest their fellow officers, expressing a desire to deport gays or put them in jail, distorting studies to demonize gays, and all around falsely branding members of the gay community as the “dreaded other” which must be kept away from doesn’t strike me as standing up for morality and truth.
Yet, these are the things which the Family Research Council has done. And it is also why the Southern Poverty Law Center called them an anti-gay hate group.
Of course now in the conservative circles, there seems to be a call for SPLC to rescind this designation.
I have to ask why.
Will the Family Research Council do some soul searching after what happened today? Will it publicly apologize for all the lies it has told on the gay community? Will leaders of the organization realize that their tone does more to inflame hatred from all sides rather than spread respect and understanding? Will they realize that maybe they should stop using junk science or distorting legitimate science against the gay community?
I doubt it. And it is for that reason that while I will freely pray for the organization after this awful incident, I will not give the Family Research Council the satisfaction of me forgetting all of the things it has said and done to unfairly demonize me and my brothers and sisters in the name of its God.
As far as I am concerned, the Family Research Council is still a hate group. And that won’t change in my mind unless the organization changes.
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It’s interesting to note the difference in the reactions to the shooting. About two dozen gay advocacy groups put out a joint statement condemning the violence and offering support for the guard who was wounded. Brian Brown, of NOM, put out a statement attacking “the left” for calling FRC a hate group and playing the victim card to the hilt — and it wasn’t even his organization that was attacked. If FRC has put out a statement, I haven’t seen it, although I’m sure it will be choice.
Offhand, I’d say don’t look for any of these groups to change their tone or their tactics.
Update — according to Box Turtle Bulletin this morning, the number of gay advocacy groups signing on to that joint statement is now 41.
And the number of “Christian” organizations condemning the years of lies, distortions and misrepresentations from the FRC — zero.
In the DC area over the last few months to a year, there has been a frightening increase in anti-LGBT crimes, including several murders of trans women, a shooting in a restaurant and at least two unprovoked street attacks against gay men, one in broad daylight. To my knowledge the FRC, even though their offices are mere blocks from where many of these attacks occurred, has never expressed one iota of concern or compassion for these victims. Although I am certainly concerned for the security guard – who has rightly been hailed as a hero for preventing further bloodshed – I will not shed a tear for the FRC. Their history of bigotry, slander and the creation of propaganda to use against innocent LGBT citizens is well known. They cannot escape their past and to try to use this shooting as a means to re-legitimize the organization is sickening.
Unfortunately reports are that the shooter was a volunteer at the DC LGBT Center. You know that FRC and its aligned organizations will not hesitate to use this fact to condemn all LGBT people and to renew their calls for limitations on our civil rights. This man may have pushed our movement back years and I am very concerned for the potential impact on the marriage vote in MD>