Homosexual bigots commit hate crimes, Part 8 -- WA petition signers

By Bryan Fischer

Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"

"A hate crime...involves threats, harassment, or physical harm and is motivated by prejudice against someone's...religion..." — USLegal.com

"A threat is also defined as a menace that keeps the mind of a person upon whom a threat operates unsettled."

"Harassment is unwanted, unwelcomed and uninvited behavior that demeans, threatens or offends the victim and results in a hostile environment for the victim. Harassing behavior may include...epithets, derogatory comments or slurs and lewd propositions...and visual insults, such as derogatory posters or cartoons."

In 2009, as this article in WorldNetDaily points out, 137,881 voters in Washington state added their signatures to a petition that gave citizens the opportunity to overturn a recently enacted law which gave virtually all marital rights to same-sex couples. Proponents of the laws of nature and nature's God lost the vote to protect marriage 52-48, and the new law was upheld.

But homosexual bigots were not content with victory at the ballot box. They wanted the names and addresses of everyone who signed the petition. Why would they insist on having this information after the election was over?

The simplest explanation is they wanted a list of fresh hate crimes targets.

Remember the legal definition of a hate crime: it includes threats and harassment motivated by prejudice against someone's religious beliefs. A high percentage of those who supported natural marriage did so because they believe what Jesus Christ taught, that marriage is a union of one man and one woman. Many were members of the LDS church, which has actively supported natural marriage.

Christophobic gay activists want the identities of these people and want to know where they can find them. And the simplest explanation is that they want them so they can continue a campaign of threats, harassment and intimidation against them.

As the legal brief filed by attorney James Bopp indicates, there were "virtually countless reports of threats, harassment, and reprisals." The left-tilting New York Times used the phrase "the ugly specter of intimidation" to describe the conduct of those who supported special rights for same-sex couples.

Many of the threats went unreported to authorities because victims feared even more threats and harassment if their identities and addresses became known.

If hate crimes include threats and harassment, then homosexual bigots have already committed a litany of hate crimes against the decent folk who support natural marriage in Washington, in a campaign even the winger-left Los Angeles Times described as "vengeful." As Bopp's brief indicates, here are just some of the documented threats directed against petition signers:

• "You're dead. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon ... you're dead."
  
  
• "I'm a gay guy who owns guns, and he's my next target"
  
  
• "I will kill you and your family."
  
  
• "Oh my G**, This woman is so f — ing stupid. Someone please shoot her in the head, again and again. And again."
  
  
• "I'm going to kill the pastor."
  
  
• "We're going to kill you."
  
  
• "I warn you, I know how to kill, I'm an ex-special forces person."
  
  
• "Get ready for retribution all you bigots."
  
  
• Burn their f — ing churches to the ground, and then tax the charred timbers."
  
  
• "I will kill you and your family."
  
  
• "If I had a gun I would have gunned you down along with each and every other supporter."
  
  
• "Keep letting [the pastor] preach hate and he'll be sorry."
  
  
• "You better stay off the olympic peninsula. . it's a very dangerous place filled with people who hate racists, gay bashers and anyone who doesn't believe in equality. fair is fair."
  
  
• "If Larry Stickney can do 'legal' things that harm OUR family, why can't we go to Arlington, WA to harm his family?"
  
  
• "I advocate using violence against the property of ALL of those who are working tirelessly to HURT my family; starting with churches and government property. Government is enabling a vote on whether or not I 'should be allowed' to see my husband while he is dying in the hospital — any NORMAL man would be driven to get a gun and kill those who tried such evil cruelty against his loved ones."
  
  
• "I wanna fight you. I wanna fight you right now."
  
  
• "Throw Rocks Here" (sign with arrow pointing to pastor's head)
  
  
• "You guys deserve to die" (uttered during a physical attack)
  
  
• "I'll bust your cap."
  
  
• "You're on my block now, bro. [If] you guys don't leave within 20 minutes, there's gonna be some problems. . . . I'm telling you right now, 20 minutes."
  
  
• "[I'll] see you in my trunk."
  
  
• "I'm going to give them something to be f — ing scared of....I'm a radical who is now on a
  
  
• mission to make them all pay for what they've done."
  
  
• "STUPID MOTHER F*****. MAKE A DONATION Like that AND YOU ARE LISTED."
  
  
• "YOU LOST!!!!!!! Hahahahahahahahahaha Get ready for retribution all you bigots!!!!!!" (email sent within hours of Supreme Court's decision in Doe v. Reed)
  
  
• "You conservative Christians are f****** poison."
  
  
• "Can someone in CA please go burn down the Mormon temples there, PLEASE. I mean seriously. DO IT."
  
  
• "F*** you Mormons. Yeah you heard me. F*** you. F*** you and your narrow minded hypocritical a****. F*** you for putting money into taking away a persons right. . . ."
  
  
• "As far as mormons and catholics...I warn them to watch their backs."
  
  
• "Oh Mormons, go f*** yourselves!" (sung to cheering crowds at same-sex marriage demonstrations)
  
  
• "The Mormon church (just like most churches) is a cesspool of filth. It is a breeding ground for oppression of all sorts and needs to be confronted, attacked, subverted and destroyed."
  
  
• "I fully support violence against churches who are politically-active as anti-gay . . . ."
  
  
• "If you were afraid that your kids learning about homosexuals would corrupt them, you have no IDEA what I'm going to do to them."
  
  

One supporter was told that not only he but his whole family would be killed, and another was told his daughter would be raped.

And the heterophobic bigots weren't content just with threats. They graffittied churches, painted swastikas on lawns and walls (apparently it's okay for them to make Nazi analogies for not for anyone else), threw bricks through windows, and poured glue into locks.

Here's one example:

"Last night, under the veil of fog, we visited the Church of Latter Day Saints. We left their locks glued with anarchist messages scrawled in spray paint over their boring veneer. . . . Let this be a warning to the Mormon church, dissolve completely or be destroyed. The choice is yours."

Nor was the violence directed just against church buildings. There were physical assaults, keyed cars, spray-painted homes and buildings, slashed tires, smashed windows in cars, homes and other structures, and stolen and mangled signs.

Said Bopp, "What is becoming increasingly evident is that some groups and individuals, certainly a minority, have resorted to advancing their cause, not by debating the merits of the issue but by discouraging participation in the democratic process itself."

Bopp added, "The First Amendment was designed to ensure that all groups, whatever their persuasion, could participate fully in our republic. That breaks down when some groups or individuals are cowed into silence for fear that they or their families will be targeted or threatened if they speak up."

The homosexual movement is not a benign movement. It is driven by a frightening hatred directed against anyone who stands unapologetically for time-honored moral values.

Until our culture comes to understand that, and until values-driven citizens understand that evil triumphs when good men do nothing, the parade of hate crimes perpetrated by homosexual activists will continue. And you, if you don't cower in silence, may be their next victim.

(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)

© Bryan Fischer