Elderly woman attacked by protesters?

[Rick336]

It's unclear what actually happened at this protest demonstration concerning a 69 year old woman. The story by the OneNewsNow news source of the American Family Association tells millions of its subscribers that the "true face" of homosexual protesters is violence and intolerance.


"America needs to see the true face of the homosexual activists who are intolerant against people of faith and anyone who believes in real marriage between a man and a woman." - Randy Thomasson

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=319132


Rick

[sauu4equality]

I watched the video of this incident on youtube...a link conveniently not attached by onenewsnow. The woman was not harmed at all. She made a startling and interesting comment: "It seems like people are wanting some kind of justice." Surely she wasn't this clueless. I was disturbed somewhat by a guy destroying her styrofoam cross. I wish he hadn't done that...not because I don't think it was justified, but because Fox News and all the other Right Wing Radical News agencies are desperately trying to make gay people look bad. I would imagine she was most likely planted at the rally by conservative news agencies and then they concocted a false story (nothing new). "To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle." -George Orwell (yes, I stole this from Andrew Sullivan's blog for those of you that read him regularly).

[Matt Algren]

I'm not saying they should have beat her up or anything, but it's interesting that Dobson's organization is trying to paint her as a helpless little old lady. She's three years younger than John McCain, and they wanted him to run the country.

[Rick336]

I was disturbed somewhat by a guy destroying her styrofoam cross. I wish he hadn't done that...

I agree. I don't think her styrofoam cross should have been torn up. But the OneNewsNow headline says the lady was "roughed up". It makes it sound like she was knocked to the ground and kicked.

The American Family Association absolutely despises us and they'll use anything they can find to make us look bad. They are obsessed with homosexuality and it drives them crazy that we won't go away. So they find a video of a handful of gay protesters behaving angrily towards an anti-gay protester and they twist it to make millions of their subscribers think that we're all a violent threat to America.

I'm old enough to remember when Martin Luther King would visit a Southern city and the people in town would go nuts taunting him and throwing stuff at him and calling him the (N-word) king. I think what angered them most was that he wouldn't back down and he showed them he was not afraid of them.

Opponents of LGBT rights do the same thing. They have thrown everything they have at us to make us look like evil demons. But we've shown them that we're not afraid of them and we won't back down. That infuriates them. So they post stuff like this on their websites:

"This is an example of the tolerance they are looking for? Their goal is nothing less than the destruction of our civilization, a descent into immoral anarchy."

Sure, that's our plan. :rolleyes:


Rick

[tdogg]

I saw the news clip right after this happened.

She was in the middle of No on 8 protesters (after the election), alone and carrying this huge styrofoam cross. She was batting down the protesters signs repeatedly, and hitting them on the head. They got tired of it, batted down her cross, stomped on it and that's about it. The folks here in Sacramento are screaming at how hateful and evil gays are. Because, the AFA failed to show the entire clip.

She put herself in the situation to stir up crap and then screams afterwards. What did she expect, for them to make her some tea and rub her feet? She instigated the incident, provoked the "No" protesters and didn't stop until finally they couldn't take it anymore. Sorry, I just don't have a lot of sympathy for her, especially since once again organized religion is turning the event into a gay bashing fiesta.

[Zerbie]

She put herself in the situation to stir up crap and then screams afterwards. What did she expect, for them to make her some tea and rub her feet? She instigated the incident, provoked the "No" protesters and didn't stop until finally they couldn't take it anymore. Sorry, I just don't have a lot of sympathy for her, especially since once again organized religion is turning the event into a gay bashing fiesta.

We have to expect these things. People WILL do provocative things just to get a reaction and they will broadcast the reaction to rouse negativity against gays and allies. That is why we absolutely need to not react, just walk away. Don't give them ANYthing.

[Alecto]

Ah, that made it here. I was going to bring it up in a comment earlier (pre-nap).

She obviously went intending to provoke a response: I wouldn't be shocked if she also very deliberately had the media on hand when she did it. If we turned things around here, and this were a lesbian activist with, say, a papier-mache lamda, I would still have zero sympathy that her lamda got stomped if she went up to taunt a HUGE group of protestors. More than 3 people, all very visibly angry? I'm glad she wasn't hurt.
I'm in no way saying that the cross-stomping isn't ever so slightly problematic, but, um, why was she that close to the protest anyway? I thought there were literally laws about that to keep people from potentially getting hurt.

[Rick336]

The people who deliberately portray us in the media as the bad guys must think this plan somehow is going to create a backlash that will send us all running back into the closets. Could they possibly be that naive?

I mean seriously. Do they really believe that tens of millions of us are going to give up our fight for gay marriage, forget all about equality, ignore our sexuality, ditch our partners, marry the opposite sex, have a dozen babies, and spend our Friday nights in the checkout lane at Walmart?

Yeah, that will happen.


Rick

[tdogg]

We have to expect these things. People WILL do provocative things just to get a reaction and they will broadcast the reaction to rouse negativity against gays and allies. That is why we absolutely need to not react, just walk away. Don't give them ANYthing.

I totally agree here. This was right after election, I think Friday or Saturday nite, so of course emotions were still raging. She was stupid, but the protesters gave in and reacted.

On election day, between polling place shifts, three of us went in search of "yes" people and found a lone guy on a busy streetcorner. He was just waving his huge American flag and a little 'yes' sign under, smiling and not saying anything and obviously pretty happy about what he was doing. We positioned ourselves on each of the other three streetcorners, making our stand but not interfering with his game. That was easy though. It gets harder when they come into our space and do their best to provoke a reaction.

We have to really rise above, be the better people and not give them a reaction. Anything on our end that even looks bad will be blown so far out of proportion it will make us all look bad.

[Matt Algren]

I saw the news clip right after this happened.

She was in the middle of No on 8 protesters (after the election), alone and carrying this huge styrofoam cross. She was batting down the protesters signs repeatedly, and hitting them on the head. They got tired of it, batted down her cross, stomped on it and that's about it. The folks here in Sacramento are screaming at how hateful and evil gays are. Because, the AFA failed to show the entire clip.

She put herself in the situation to stir up crap and then screams afterwards. What did she expect, for them to make her some tea and rub her feet? She instigated the incident, provoked the "No" protesters and didn't stop until finally they couldn't take it anymore. Sorry, I just don't have a lot of sympathy for her, especially since once again organized religion is turning the event into a gay bashing fiesta.
Does anyone know if video of the whole incident exists? I wouldn't mind putting that up.

[BruceChris]

It looks like a setup, to me.

BC

[CaptainSnoopy]

End of the day, it does not matter what she did. She bullbaited the protesters and they walked right into it. This woman likely thinks twitter is something that happens to Scarlett when Rhett is in the room, yet like an internet troll she laid flame bait and others took it. In the wake of this mess all us straight folk see on the news is crosses being stomped on, old ladies screaming, and black people being called niggers.

Now, I know that this is a frustrated minority and not representative of the entire group....but that perception has even trickled into John Stewart's Daily Show routine. When The Factor and The Daily Show think the same falsehood is truth...there's some damage control that needs to be addressed.

When we turn the other cheek and we are consistent about it...no news org can find fault in you. She got what she wanted from the people in that crowd and she is now a martyr. Sucks.

[tdogg]

Does anyone know if video of the whole incident exists? I wouldn't mind putting that up.

The video clip I saw was on the news, I'm thinking MSNBC or CNN, but it could have been local news station. I'll do some research when I have time and try to find the entire clip. I should have jotted it down at the time, because I was thinking oh no, this is going to be portrayed in a way to give us a bad name. Much like the resignation of Scott Eckhern here in Sac (director of CMT).

[wmanion]

I found this video about it on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WLEdGXMbW0

[Matt Algren]

I found this video about it on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WLEdGXMbW0
That's awesome wmanion. I'll be using that video later today. Thanks.

[tdogg]

Gosh, I stand corrected. Always pays to actually WATCH the video in question rather than ASS-U-Me-ING it's the one I saw. This appears to be a different incident.

The one I saw on the news showed a female, carrying a very large cardboard or styrofoam 3D cross, in the middle of No on 8 demonstrators and batting their No on 8 signs down with her cross. They finally take the cross from her, toss it to the ground and stomp on it. Nothing happened to her. The outfit on this gal looks different so I think it was a separate incident.

[scrupulous_stoic]

and I appreciate the media not acknowledging the fact that this "elderly lady" was hitting people with her styrafoam cross. The group that confronted her was very small; about a dozen people, and many, including me, had no awareness of the incident until the video surfaced on the news and Youtube. (I knew she was there, hitting people, but did not know the group reacted in the way they did)

Regardless, destroying her property, especially a religious symbol, does no good to our cause.

By the way, I missed you all!

- Bennett