Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Possible Hate Crime Shooting at the Hate Group D.C. Office of the Family Research Council

 
 
The Family Research Council is a hate group, identified as such by the Southern Poverty Law Center for disseminating 'false and demonizing propaganda about gays and lesbians', and the Human Rights Campaign has similarly identified them as a hate group. The Family Research Council has called for same sex relationships to be criminalized, it promotes discredited junk science that isn't really science at all to claim that people who have a same-sex orientation are pedophiles, which is factually inaccurate.

The FRC has opposed any attempts to prevent policies and legislation against bullying of same sex oriented individuals as an intrusion on religious rights of Christianity.  The organization has opposed inclusion of gender orientation in hate crime laws, despite gender and sexual orientation as one of the types of hate crimes that have increased more than other categories according to FBI statistics.

The FRC supports reparative therapy which has included electrical shocks applied to people's genitals and other harmful acts which are condemned by all of the Medical and Pschyological and Psychiatric professionals organizations as very damaging. The organization has advocated for harsh punishment for same sex attraction, including castration. The FRC has gone so far as to demand that same-sex oriented citizens of the United States should be exiled from the country. The organization has in turn claimed that recognition of same sex rights and other progress has been accomplished by 'intimidation and emotional blackmail', which is a blatant hypocrisy given the actions and tactics of the FRC.

Right wing politicians, including Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee, Rick Perry, the serial adulterer Nut Gingrich, and Mitt Romney along with his VP pick Paul Ryan all support the positions and hate policies and actions of the Family Research Council, which doesn't actually DO any valid research; they are primarily a lobbying organization for the Religious Right.  They aren't ONLY anti-gay, they also share the Islamophobia of the right wing extremists, so the shooting may have nothing to do with homophobic hatred, it might be triggered by one of their other hate policies and hate-oriented big spending.

The shooter has been identified as a black and male; the FRC has tried to export their quasi-religious hate positions to Africa, notably to countries like Uganda where they have advocated that homosexuals should be executed.  The FRC has lobbied Congress not to oppose gay executions in Africa.  That was just one of the many hate and violence positions taken by the FRC that earned them the designation of a hate group.

It is unknown at this writing if the man who shot the guard in the arm in the lobby of the FRC was one of their own haters having an internecine dispute, or from a rival organization with issues with the FRC, or possibly one of the victims of the FRC, or had some other motivation for the action.

Pitirim A. Sorokin, founder of the Department of Sociology at Harvard, and founder as well of the Harvard Research Center for Creative Altruism.  Sorokin wrote,
"Hate begets hate, violence engenders violence, hypocrisy is answered by hypocrisy, war generates war, and love creates love. " 
In the larger context of that observation, it is not a surprise that the Family Research Council was the target for such a deplorable and violent act, in view of the harm and hatred that characterize their reason for existence, but that certainly neither justifies nor excuses the violence.  The only way to successfully oppose the FRC is by resisting their hatred, not responding with more hatred.

As more information becomes known, I will update here what the motivations might be for this shooting, and what ideology if any is associated with the action.  This shooting is a despicable act, but this organization is equally despicable and causes tremendous damage and pain to many, many people. Both the act of violence, and the hatred and lies of this organization should be equally condemned, as should the right wing extremist politicians who support the FRC.

Thank goodness that at least this shooter doesn't appear to have opted for either an assault style rifle or an expanded capacity magazine, but appears to have stopped after one shot, only wounding the guard before surrendering.  We wish the guard a speedy recovery from his injuries.


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