Subscribe to Breaking NewsWithers: There is more behind the Phylliss Burgess story
, contributing editor, 365Gay Blog 11.20.2008 8:25pm EST
Phylliss Burgess is turning into a saint in the world of the right. The elderly woman whose styrofoam cross was taken from her hands and stomped on at a Proposition 8 rally (people you had to know how that was going to play) has turned into “Victim # 1″ of progressive gay secularism run amok. Like all stories, there is more than the taped loop Sean Hannity keeps playing. No justification for taking the woman’s religious symbol, but she knew exactly what she was doing.
We should also understand that instigation of criminal activity is also a crime. What did the woman say/do prior to the assault that may have provoked her assailants?
From another perspective, there are millions of examples of Christians using their crosses, figuratively and literally, to kill homosexuals. One example of an alleged gay person responding to the viciousness of the provocation of flaunting past injustices against gay or lesbians does not a trend make, regardless of the extreme method the response takes. Imagine what a black man might do were he to be confronted with the hood and cloak of a KKK member…that symbol might also be torn from it’s owner and thrown to the ground in rage.
When Christian iconography is used to promote positive changes in society, THEN it may be held to higher repute by our society. Until then, why should the act of eschewing this symbol be any different than pulling a “Fags should die!” sign from the hands of another instigator of hatred?
I heard an interesting couple comments on Ms Burgess, while in Palm springs a few days ago.
1. She is trying to protect marriage, but is a divorcee. Nice. I admit this is hearsay of course, but isn’t it str8 people with their 50% divorce rate who are destroying this institution.
2. Ms Burgess, to her credit, did agree to not press charges after an apology was given. But her issue was that she was concerned that gay marriage would result in her church being forced to do gay marriage ceremonies.
So, the real problem is the hatred of the people who ran the yes on 8 campaign, and one of their key lies was to stoke the fears and feelings of Ms. Burgess.
So she is a victim of the religious extremists who gave us prop 8, and who now use what happened as propaganda. Ms Burgess should come out, explain in a big public forum what her issue was, and she should understand how she has been ‘had’ by the liars of the prop 8 campaign.
And just maybe she might, when she realizes what has happened, become a supporter of equal justice for gay people.
No one’s questioning the ethics of that journalist that thought it was a good idea to interview her right there?
I don’t understand how she ended up among the other protesters. Aren’t opposing protesters supposed to stay away from each other?
She might as well have taken a cross, stuck it in the ground and lit it on fire. Yeah, I’m making a comparison to burning crosses because it’s a logical comparison.