Over the weekend, there has been a plethora of responses to the Orlando shooting, most of them offering prayers and support for the victims and their families. However, the inevitable political dialogue from such a tragedy has come.
Case in point: Chase Strangio, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT and AIDS project, came to a mind-blowing conclusion regarding the real perpetrator of the shooting early Sunday morning that left at least 50 dead and 53 more wounded: the Christian Right.
Of course the actual shooter, Omar Mateen, is Muslim. Mateen called the local police and vowed his allegiance to the Islamic State before opening fire in Pulse, a popular Orlando gay bar. He also had a history of mental instability, certainly contributing a factor to this atrocity.
But for Strangio, the real culprit is not a person, but an ideology. He took to Twitter shortly after the shooting to expose what he sees as the real evil behind the Orlando massacre:
There are so many reasons this is wrong. (Besides the fact that he uses LGBT. So not inclusive. The correct term is LGBTQIA. Strangio is a huge bigot right off the bat for not including all the other identities in the community.)
More materially, Strangio apparently thinks that Mateen was subconsciously pushed to the edge by the bigoted Christian Right. So when Mateen pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, what he really meant to say was “Vatican City?” I’m very unclear as to how Strangio pegs Christians with this one.
Christians proposed legislation consistent with Christian beliefs about gay marriage in the last six months. A Muslim murdered 50 people in a gay club. How are the two connected?
Thanks for trying to indiscriminately demonize the Christian Right, Strangio. But next time, maybe you should think about using... oh I dunno logic maybe.