Blame the victim

Last week the Triangle Foundation joined activist groups nationwide in releasing a report tallying the increase of hate crimes committed against gays and lesbians.

Here in Michigan, such crimes rose 26 percent between 1999 and the end of 2000, reaching a total of 121 last year, according to the report.

“The figures contained in the report illustrate one thing very clearly,” said Jeffrey Montgomery, Triangle Foundation’s executive director. “In the United States — certainly in Michigan — it is very dangerous to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. We are threatened, beaten, maimed, and killed at an alarming, ever-increasing rate.”

In reporting on the disclosure, the Detroit News, in a never-ending quest to provide balance to its stories, talked to Gary Glenn, executive director of the Michigan Chapter of the American Family Association. Based in Tupelo, Miss., the AFA is a radically anti-gay Christian group. So what did Mr. Glenn have to say about the report?

“The Triangle Foundation and other homosexual advocates are themselves to blame for the overwhelming majority of violence experienced because of their affirmation and promotion of the homosexual lifestyle,” Glenn said.

Montgomery responded to Glenn’s display of profound Christian love and understanding by noting in a press release: “Is there any further proof needed that one of the chief reasons our numbers steadily increase every year is that people are prompted to attack and brutalize us by the kind of ignorant, dangerous thinking that is turned out by the likes of Mr. Glenn?”