General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I think this stuff about seeing 2 guys kiss as a motivation is ridiculous [View all]justiceischeap
(14,040 posts)however, in this case, we just don't know that. His ex-wife called him mentally unstable, his father (who seems like his own special nut job) claims it was because he saw two men kissing... The gov't is stating, so far, they aren't finding evidence of his radicalization so, we just don't really know his motivation at this point.
What we do know is that a man bought an AR-15 within the past week, took that weapon into a LGBTQ club and killed and wounded a shitload of members of the LGBTQ community. We do know this is a hate crime.
We also know that in the past six months the the Christian Right has introduced 200+ anti-LGBT bills and yet the sole blame, by so many is on Islam. We have our very own problem within the United States. We have a problem, despite marriage equality, of hate speech and hateful legislation against the LGBTQ community and that seeps like sewage into our every day consciousness without our even knowing it. There's a low-level hum of homophobia that is rampant in the United States and to ignore that, to blame what happened today solely on Islam is a huge part of the problem.