Pam Spaulding is going to jail!
by Matt | February 7th, 2007 |
No… NOT really… but anti-gay, religious right leader Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth has been in contact with the FBI and the Attorney General of the State of North Carolina seeking to start a criminal investigation into comments made by a user on Pam’s website back in mid-January 2007.
Pam (pictured right at the NCDP Progressive Bloggers Conference on Jan. 27, 2007) posted a little on the situation today, notifying readers that the comments in question had been deleted and that the community standards for her web community had certainly been broken:
A CWA piece up today alerted me to the fact that there was a string of comments in a subthread of a particular post from a while back, that not only published private information about Peter LaBarbera, but contained threats. Whether they were real or not is irrelevant; it’s reprehensible — and it’s not what this community is about.
Given the amount of traffic and limited time I have, I don’t get to comment on or read every exchange in every post; there are community standards that were clearly violated by the exchanges, and I have rightfully deleted the comments.
I have never advocated threatening physical harm toward anyone, as I have been on the receiving end of the same treatment — and it doesn’t feel good, let me tell you.
The Concerned Women for America newspiece Pam speaks of cites the threats to LaBarbera (emphasis mine):
Lesbian activist Pam Spaulding’s popular weblog Pam’s House Blend is known for its outrageous and controversial content. In addition to promoting anti-Christian bigotry, the North Carolina-based Web activist’s favorite pastime appears to be smearing pro-family leader and Americans for Truth president Peter LaBarbera with bizarre and hateful accusations and insults. However, House Blend’s typically intolerant and obscene content may have recently shifted from the absurd to the criminally violent.
In what was, at the very least, an apparent attempt to intimidate and frighten LaBarbera, who is married with children, “House Blend” published his home address in a January 13, 2007, thread titled, “Saturday this and that.” Shortly thereafter, someone identified as “Barry G. Wick” posted the following comments: “It’s across from a park in an area with cul de sacs. I’d bet it’s a residence … and across from a park. Snipers take note.” (emphasis ours)
“Wick” later seemed to suggest that shooting LaBarbera would amount to an act of self-defense: “Self-defense for gay folks isn’t PC, is it? No, we have to be sure that we’re victims all the time. … When we start standing up for ourselves, we lose all the status of an under class. I refuse to be part of an underclass. I’m equal. And I’m gonna use any language, even outrageous language, to get my point across. … I’m a citizen … equal, proud, and willing to defend my way of life with my life. …”
Later in the same thread “Wick” made his true intent clear: “If I were Azerbaijani and living in Russia right now, I’d want to advocate violence against skinheads … [LaBarbera] and others like him ought to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, what future awaits them from a cadre of selected defenders willing to give up everything in order to protect the lives of gay and lesbian citizens. The greatest thing ever to happen to the [Martin Luther King] movement was the Black Panthers. Americans were shocked by an open display of firearms and Black Pride … Pushing back verbally … or with selected action isn’t dishonorable, it’s necessary.”
LaBarbera indicated that he has been in touch with both the FBI and the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office. He’s anticipating a full criminal investigation. “I’m a big boy. It’s not so much that I’m worried about myself,” said LaBarbera, “but the effect this could have on my wife and children … that has me extremely upset.”
I, for one, will definitely be keeping up with the situation if anything new pops up.
UPDATE 1: Here is the Peter LaBarbera’s posting on the Americans for Truth site. In the posting, LaBarbera states, “Please pray for Spaulding, “Barry Wick,” and all those whose embrace of homosexuality has led them to be consumed by hatred toward Christians and others who defend natural sexuality and marriage.”
UPDATE 2: Here is LaBarbera’s posting regarding Pam’s removal of the threatening comments.
UPDATE 3: Here is Gay.As.You’s posting on the subject.
As a sidenote: I do full-heartedly believe that the vast, vast majority of all activists on every side of the debate over LGBT issues do not in any manner promote violence or threatening behavior toward any other person. Here at InterstateQ.com, we take seriously the principle of non-violence. Like Pam, LaBarbera and others, we do not advocate the use of violence as a means to achieve any end.
Technorati Tags: Pam Spaulding, Pams House Blend, Peter LaBarbera, Americans for Truth, Barry Wick
One Response to “Pam Spaulding is going to jail!”
As a reader and commenter on Pam’s House Blend I think we are all missing part of Barry G. Wick’s point. While I believe in non-violence, what all of America has to do is to prepare itself for is violence. Because violence of the psychic variety is being done to the GLBTQI community on a daiy basis.
When you push down a group of Americans, deny them their equality and grind your fascist bootheels in their faces while consistently demonizing them you have to anticipate that some will fight back.
The black civil rights movement saw it’s long hot summer of ghettoes afire and there’s no reason to assume that certain angry gays will, at some point, choose to fight back. It’s a wonder that it hasn’t happened yet.
The anti-gay homophobic right that would be happy to see all homosexuals disappear, are the Christian equivalent of schoolyard bullies, using the media and ballot box to do their pummeling. They consistently use inflammatory language and images meant to provoke gay bashing. Why does no one stand up and say enough? When no one else will stand up for you, you are forced to stand up for yourself. That is the only way to stop a bully.
By Alan down in Florida on Feb 8, 2007