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Catholic Church Vandalized: "Prop 8 Protestors" Guilty Until Proven Innocent

By Fannie

Apparently, someone has vandalized a Catholic Church in the Castro by painting swastikas on it. That is very unfortunate. No arrests have been made in this incident. In other words, no one knows who committed this crime.

Oddly, in spite of the fact that we don't know who committed the crime, the anti-gay blogosphere and even the mainstream media have accused the LGBT community of this crime. This latest guilty-until-proven-innocent accusation reminds me of White Powder-Gate, the incident in which someone sent white powder to a Mormon Church. Even though the FBI called any links between the white powder and Proposition 8 to be a "stretch," anti-gays around the blogosphere have gone ahead and blamed the LGBT community and Prop 8 protestors anyway.

With respect to the this latest incident regarding the Catholic Church, abc7's headline boldly stated as fact that "Prop 8 protestors vandalize[d] church." The corresponding short, uninformative, and poorly written "article" offered no evidence to support its headline and actually offered nothing more than this lame suggestion:

"It appears the vandals are upset about the Catholic church's support of Proposition 8, which made same-sex marriage illegal in California."

"It appears" that way? Okay, but how? Like, specifically. My inquiring mind certainly wanted to know what exactly it was about the graffiti that enabled us all to delve into the innermost recesses of the vandal's mind and ascertain that the vandal was "upset" about Prop 8.

I'm not claiming to know why someone painted graffiti on the church. I'm just saying responsible journalists and bloggers should hold off on making accusations until they have evidence supporting their claims. Or, if they have better evidence they should present it to people who might not be willing to take their unsupported conclusions at face value.

Michelle Malkin, who's probably never met an anti-gay conclusion she didn't want to jump to, gloats "The tolerance bullies are at it again ? engaging in renewed property damage in the name of peace, love, and understanding." Professional "marriage defender" Maggie Gallagher's iMAPP blog jumped on the bandwagon and promoted the abc7 headline without questioning a single claim the short article made. The Kingfisher Column claimed that "Proposition 8 protestors" and "fanatical gay rights activists" vandalized the church.

Now, I'm not trying to be mean here. But I would hope that some of these folks will soon tire of their obsessive vilification of the LGBT community. It's becoming ever more apparent that in their breathless zeal to tattle-tale on the homosexualists, they've lost all capacity for rational thought. These people would do better to remember that sometimes when one assumes, one does nothing but make an ass of oneself. Perhaps these bloggers are endowed by their creator with certain psychic powers but I'm going to hold off on making my accusations until I get some evidence to back up my claims.

But then again, I prefer to live in a world in which assertions are backed up by, you know, facts. I'm just elitist that way.

Full post as published by Fannie's Room on January 08, 2009 (boomark / email).