New details have emerged about Floyd Lee Corkins II, the 28-year-old man who opened fire yesterday in the DC headquarters of the Family Research Council.
Corkins, who lived in the suburb of Herndon, VA, is currently being held on charges of assault with a deadly weapon while the FBI interrogates him about his reason for firing a 9-mm handgun and wounding security guard Leo Johnson.
The AP reports Corkins had been volunteering at Washington, DC’s Center for the LGBT Community as recently as two weeks ago, when he was manning the front desk. ‘‘He always struck me as a kind, gentle and unassuming young man. I’m very surprised that he could be involved in something like this,’’ said Center director David Mariner.
While Corkin’s volunteer work and his malice toward the anti-LGBT lobbying group would suggest he’s gay, there has been no confirmation or public statement to that effect.
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White House spokesman Jay Carney said President Obama, “expressed his concern for the individual injured in the shooting and his strong belief that this type of violence has no place in our society.” Republican contender Mitt Romney echoed the President’s condemnation of violence, and said his prayers were with the guard and his family.
Of course right-wing elements on the blogosphere haven’t paused a second to lay blame at the feet of LGBT groups and progressives.
Erick Erickson of RedState.com tweeted: “Two people have been shot at the Family Research Council in Washington, DC. If it were at a liberal group, it’d be all over the headlines.”
Gee, Erick, 4,930,000 Google hits and counting? We’d say that’s “all over the headlines.”
Anti-choice activist Andrew Bair: “Have any liberals blamed @SarahPalinUSA or @rushlimbaugh for the #FRC shooting yet? #newtone””
AcuteMania’s headline on the story: “Gay Left-Wing Terrorist Attacks Christian Lobbying Group”
And from the neo-con Twitter blog Twitchy: “The Left screeches about new tone and civility, and shamelessly, and shamefully, blamed Sarah Palin for shootings due to the use of crosshairs in ads. However, the Family Research Council was actually put in crosshairs. [FRC is branded] a ‘hate group,’ because they believe in traditional marriage. The Left has targeted them over and over and fostered a climate of hate.”
Oh, there’s so much we could say right now, but we’d like to think that most reasonable people know that this isn’t about Left or Right. Whatever Corkins’ affiliations or ideology, he was a mentally disturbed man who acted in a way that no legitimate progressive group endorses. Just as we wouldn’t assume Wade Michael Page, who opened fire on innocent civilians at a Sikh temple last week, spoke for all (or any) anti-immigration groups.
On the FRC Facebook page, members of the LGBT community and its allies were quick to offer condolences and empathy:
Jen posted: “I am straight, Christian, and a very vocal advocate for LGBT equality. I don’t see eye-to-eye with this group on anything, but no one deserves to be violently harmed for their views. That man was a lunatic and in no way represents the majority of liberals or the LGBT community. My thoughts are with those affected by today’s horrific events.”
Christopher commented: “While our beliefs will always separate us, our humanity will always unite us. The gunman is not representative of the GLBT community and we condemn his violence.
A speedy recovery to the security guard.”
By their very actions, men like Corkins and Page are what The PolicyMic aptly describes as “too demented to have what one could call a coherent political ideology.”
Photo: Truth Wins Out
Analog
He’s not only a mentally disturbed man, he seems to have a very low IQ.
He shot the security guard ffs.
Just another crazy dude with a gun, who shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near one.
Which is hardly rare in this country, is it?
I hope he gets the help he needs and is treated fairly…
Wait, what?
Now who was it who, after there was a shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin a few weeks ago, immediately — with no evidence whatever — started speculating that the shooter was a right-wing nutjob who didn’t know the difference between Sikh and Muslim?
Who, along with Towleroad, labels everyone who disagrees with their positions “haters” and “bigots,” leaving no room for disagreement with them that is not demonized?
Oh, I know who. Queerty is who.
ned
Do gay blogs need to take a second look at the daily publication of incendiary anti-gay remarks by these groups? I’m not saying to neglect to report the news, but not everyone can handle or process correctly the constant spew of venom directed their way. Some people with existing mental issues or stresses can take the verbal abuse personally and act out in a bad way.
Anonymous Coward
It is very tempting to blame the victim. By publishing incendiary anti-gay articles at every opportunity, encouraging people to commit crimes against gays, and cheering wildly when someone does commit violence against gays, organizations such as NOM regularly incite violence. People who incite violence, should not be surprised when their victims begin to defend themselves.
I think it’s called “karma”.
Mark
Actions like these accomplish nothing save fan the flames of hatred. Of course the right never offers their condolences or calls the haters to task when it’s a gay, lesbian, bi, trans person who’s the victim. Their hypocrisy is staggering.
The right acts like the bully in school who when called on their antics throw a hissy fit.
Will
“Of course right-wing elements on the blogosphere haven’t paused a second to lay blame at the feet of LGBT groups and progressives.”
And then they quote a man who didn’t even mention “LGBT or progressives.” All he said was that if this had been someone with right-wing ties, it would have been all over the news. “4,930,000 Google hits” is not all over the news or headlines. Headlines refers to newspapers, or in today’s world any news, not people posting it on their blogs because the media is avoiding this story like the plague.
Oh and about the idea of “too demented to have what one could call a coherent political ideology.” Let me post for you what actual news sources have said about ol’ Wade Michael Page:
“Wade Michael Page and the rise of violent far-right extremism”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/08/wade-michael-page-violent-far-right
“[Wade Michael Page] was well known to groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center that monitor the radical right.”
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/08/12/is-the-threat-from-hate-groups-overlooked/authorities-chose-to-look-the-other-way
Anytime there is a shooting, the media immediately blames the right. NBC had to issue an apology for assuming the Colorado shooter had tea party ties. How did they get that wrong? Because they WANTED him to have those ties. Then they blamed Rush Limbaugh for supposedly “inspiring” the shooter with his comments. REALLY? And now, we have an LGBT volunteer, and was yelling out anti-traditional marriage statements as he was shooting, and we don’t hear a peep from the media. Hypocrisy at it’s finest.
Mr. Enemabag Jones
@Will:
And now, we have an LGBT volunteer, and was yelling out anti-traditional marriage statements
Prove it. The man made one comment, after he was tackled by the guard. I know you anti-gay bigots finally have something to latch onto after years of killing us, but don’t make this out to be more than it really is, Will.
Analog
@Will: “Anytime there is a shooting, the media immediately blames the right.”
Do they?
In my experience, “the media” usually reports on who the suspect is. And he, more often than not, tends to be some right wing goon.
Polyboy
The Sikh shooting was by a right wing racist Nazi.
Anyone denying that is a retarded douchebag.
This FRC shooting smells of convenient frame up. I want to know what his computer, banking and phone records show.
And if it isn’t, it’s one dude doing something stupid. There is no continuing and growing legacy of LGBT advocacy groups advocating 2nd amendment solutions, killing us, saying our children should be kidnapped and in some cases aiding them. That’s all fundie theocrat territory and now the theocrat astroturfers are invading gay blogs to try and jedi-mindtrick us into thinking that they’re the victims and are misunderstood.
Lying prigs.
Margie Burns
The story of Corkins’ motivation may change. fyi
http://www.margieburns.com/2012/08/more-on-family-research-council-shooter-floyd-corkins/
mike ramon
If you continue to feed fuel to a fire it will continue to burn, so it is with the far right wing conservative fundamentalists, they continue to throw fuel, spewing lies, hatred, assaults and even murder, onto the fire of lgbt hatred. If they continue their filthy, disgusting ways, the fire may one day consume them.
Polyboy
The Sikh shooting was by a white supremacist, who are right wingers in this country.
This FRC shooting smells of convenient frame up. I want to know what his computer, banking and phone records show.
And if it isn’t, it’s one dude doing something stupid, not a pogrom. There is no continuing and growing legacy of LGBT advocacy groups advocating 2nd amendment solutions, killing us, saying our children should be kidnapped and in some cases aiding them. That’s all fundie theocrat territory and now their astroturfers are invading gay blogs to try and jedi-mindtrick us into thinking that they’re the victims and are misunderstood.
Clockwork
@Analog:
Good comments. Nice to see somebody making sense on this shooting incident.
Jewed Law
In case any of you who are defending this piece of shit are curious, his actions have been declared domestic terrorism. I am always dumbfounded at how gay people will automatically come to the defense of anyother gay person, regardless of how insane the perpetrator is, just because they have their sexuality in common. I guess it’s a good thing you people didn’t have a “voice” when Gacy and Dahmer were arrested, else you’d be on Queerty screaming how they’re nothing but victims of the hateful hetero establishment.
@Will: Ever notice how the left is always trying so desperately to make conservatives look crazy? Except, apparently, when a Muslim murders a group of soldiers on an army base. Then it’s simply “mental illness.”
@Polyboy: A frame-up? really? Good God, you are just the epitome of paranoia.
Clockwork
Why Queerty continues to use links of questionable accuracy is beyond me.
Washington Post still your best source for facts:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/mother-of-security-guard-shot-in-dc-happy-to-hear-him-called-hero/2012/08/16/531ed060-e7a1-11e1-8487-64e4b2a79ba8_story.html?hpid=z1
Looks like the Mr. Corkins will be headed to a federal penitentiary. His life is ruined.
Two people have been arrested over Chick-Fil-A.
Don’t be fools people, this is not the 60’s and you are not fighting for an independent Ireland.
S
Why is the LGBT community so violent towards people that don’t agree with them? You try to destroy their businesses, you intimidate their employees and now you resort to shooting the places up.
Polyboy
“Jewed Law” really?
I’m always dumbfounded when straight wingnuts try to tell gay people to lie down and take their abuse while their words and actions are sacrosanct.
Polyboy
@S
Stop lying. Conservatives boycott at the drop of a hat and advocate violence against us and our families. One event is not a trend and you are lying through your teeth to make it a “thing.”
You aren’t posting that for us, you’re posting it for your own poorly masked concern trolling.
B.BarNavi
@Wait, what?:
Except he kinda was an anti-brown person nutjob white supremacist. Are they vindicated, or are they vindicated?
B.BarNavi
@Will:
“anti-traditional marriage statements”
Such as:
“I don’t like your politics,”
Yeah. No.
AmericaTheBeautiful
@Will: Right on Will! First the clown at the Chick-fil-A window and now this guy. The LGBT thinks of themselves as cool, calm and collective, when in reality, it is full of hateful, angry souls who are lost and blaming those who do not agree with them. Where is their tolerance? Where is their leadership to acknowledge this lunatic was affiliated with them and they are ashamed for what happened. It’s convenient to point fingers when it is not you, but it is difficult to accept responsibility when the LGBT is at fault. Shameful.
JT
So you are upset that when a shooting happens, it is widely and immediately assumed that it is someone from your movement. What does that say about your movement?
Barry Battle
@AmericaTheBeautiful: Shameful indeed. The gay community’s idea of tolerance is being inclusive of everyone . . . as long as everyone’s ideology is 100% in line with theirs. If not, then the claws come out. I’ve seen it, and it’s why I’m largely closeted. I fear that if people know me as “gay” then they’ll envision me attending kiss-ins at Chick-fil-a or setting up a tent on Wall Street or going to sleazy San Francisco street fairs—and I couldn’t be farther from that stereotype.
Booker
@Anonymous Coward: It’s “tempting” to blame the victim? You mean the security guard?
Marjorie 0120
@Polyboy: Other than a nut job, I have never heard or seen or read where any public personality has advocated the beating, torture or death of a gay or straight person. Not liberal, not conservative.
That said, this is the only blog I visit where I have been told “it’s for gay men only” called names and worse. The venom here at times is pretty bad even towards those who are trying to help.
There are however many truly fine, intelligent, common sense folks here too. Voices of wisdom, reason and moderation.
The shooter was a nut, gay or straight because only crazy people think a problem will be solved by aggression and killing. Gays will never win what they want by harassment, vitriol or force, those things only justify bigotry in the minds of those who feel that way.
I am so sorry for the families involved in all of this, what a waste, it accomplished nothing. Our actions and words here will either help or hender the situation, our goal must be to offer sympathy and not justification for a tragety.
Rich Riccio
I can understand the frustration that people can feel, with so powerful FRC is. To be able to connect one person’s actions to the entire LGBT community is shameful. I’m sure the the entire country’s thoughts and prayers are going out to the mr. Leo Johnson and his family. Please see what damage is done when for decades we here from this group on how bad it is to have gay people in this country, well I’m sorry to say gay people will always be here. You can no longer force them back down the third class citizenship status. If FRC and groups like this continue to pressure the LGBT groups, eruptions will continue to happen. Would jesus Christ really want this? I think not. As for non bible people, it still comes don to treating EVERYONE equally and respectful. As for our government – if G. Gordon Litty cannot treating the First Lady (at the time, Mrs Hillary Clinton) then the government should have the right to monitor hate groups of all types including the FRC and the WBC. Trust the fact that people will fight back, when they feel they have no other options. We need to release the pressure from all this unnesscery hate being taught… Lancaster PA.
Rivcuban
The Family Research Council is a HATE GROUP. They reap what they sow. You bully and “lessen” people simply for who they are and unfortunate stuff like this will happen. I just feel bad for the gunman.
AaronT
@Barry Battle: Barry, the fact that you think two men or women kissing in public is shameful, when straight people do it every day…
or that you think Americans expressing their freedom of speech through public demonstration is somehow stereotypically gay (and shameful)…
or that you think San Francisco street fairs are sleazy because people don’t feel ashamed of their feelings or their bodies…
I feel pity for you. Someday you will look back at your life and wonder what it would have been like to love yourself for who you are. Someday you will wish you hadn’t spent so much time trying to be the person that other people expected you to be.
James M. Martin
It is typical of that jerk Tony Perkins (the PAC man, not the actor) to hide and watch until a miscreant like the potential shooter came along and tried to get inside and make mayhem there, then blame the Southern Poverty Law Center for adding the FRC to its list of hate groups. What the hell is it if not a hate group? Having followed the SPLC for many years (I am in fact a member in good standing), I know that they are exhaustive in their examination of groups before adding them to this list, and if they did so, it was only because the Research Council showed many traits in common with another group on the list: the Rev. Phred Phelps’s Westboro Baptist Church. Perkins can take issue with inclusion of anti-gay organizations, but the Council shares as much blame as any group in the nation for the high suicide rate among gay youths. The SPLC believes in calling a spade a spade. The origins of Perkins’ homophobia are no different than Phelps’: dogma from the O.T. and the rantings of that arch misogynist and homophobe Saul-Paul of Tarsus.
Only by ignoring scientific evidence showing that gays and lesbians are born the way they are can the Perkinses of this world belabor the lie that being gay is a “choice,” since this permits them to harmonize their hate with Biblical mumbo jumbo. After all, God would not create gay people; he condemns them. Why would a good God make men gay and women lesbian when He says they are an abomination and should be stoned to death. Although in my blackest of hearts I almost wish the shooter had gotten into Perkins’ inner sanctum, my non-violent nature says instead that the intruder is to be pitied, not for missing, but for trying in the first place. Make no mistake about it: the FRC is definitely a hate group. And Perkins’ mother should have considered abortion.
Billysees
@Anonymous Coward: Re 4
There’s truth in what you’ve said.
Wasn’t it the FRC who, very strangely, gave an award of some kind to some hateful preacher a while back?
See — http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/06/15/family-research-council-s-award-to-anti-gay-pastor-ron-baity-rewards-hate-speech.html.
How can they complain about “accusatorial rhetoric” after doing something like this?
The Classical Liberal
@Polyboy: The problem with the term “right” is it doesn’t mean anything. It just means “not left.” And the more “not left” you are the more “right-wing” you are.
I’m a free-market, small-government libertarian who is perfectly comfortable with gay marriage. But I am a “far-right-wing-extremist.”
Patrick Buchanan (sp?), who I disagree on just about everything: social issues, foreign policy, economy is also a “right-wing.”
So you see — two people who disagree on just about everything are lumped together under one term.
The Classical Liberal
@Polyboy: Some conservatives do. Certainly not all. And … by the way – what is the meaning of “conservative?”
Marjorie 0120
@The Classical Liberal:
Substitute Liberal for Democrat and Conservative for Republican.
If a Republican doesn’t like guns, he doesn’t buy one.
If a Democrat doesn’t like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.
If a Republican is a vegetarian, he doesn’t eat meat.
If a Democrat is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned or
regulated for everyone.
If a Republican is homosexual, he leads his life.
If a Democrat is homosexual, he demands legislated respect.
If a Republican is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.
If a Democrat is down and out, he wonders who is going to take care of him.
If a Republican doesn’t like a talk show host, he switches channels.
if a Democrat doesn’t like a talk show host, he demands that he/she be taken
off the air.
If a Republican is a non-believer, he doesn’t go to church.
If a Democrat is a non-believer, he wants any mention of God and religion
silenced.
If a Republican needs health care, he shops for it, or finds a job that provides it.
If a Democrat needs health care, he demands that the rest of us provide it.
Marjorie 0120
Seriously, Conservatives, those on the right side of politics want smaller government that works for the people and not vice-verse. Less government intrusion i.e. we don’t need a nanny state to micro-manage our lives. We don’t want them to tell us what is right and wrong, we have laws for that. We want fiscal responsibility that does not in debt children for generations untold. We don’t need government to create jobs, we need them to get the hell out of our way so we can. We don’t need government to pick and choose who the winners and losers are, we by our own choices in life should decide that. Government should not define marriage, or what religious beliefs are so long as those beliefs do not directly impact negatively the rights of other’s religious choices. We believe welfare is meant to assist, not cripple families by enslaving them in poverty with endless checks and food stamps. I am a Republican and a conservative, I’ve been asked how you can be gay and republican, the simple answer is I have to vote based on what’s best for the whole country, not just what MIGHT help me personally. Obam was against gay marriage before he was for it and it’s a campaign gimmick and sadly many will fall for it, ignoring what he’s doing to the country as a whole. His little amnesty thing will garner Hispanic votes and lull them into forgetting the hundreds dead in Mexico because of F & F. He knows that it will be challenged and beaten in the Supreme Court, but hey it gets votes in the meanwhile.
Billysees
@Polyboy: Re 11
You’ve described something of importance.
Good…
Billysees
@Polyboy: Re 17
Another well made comment Polyboy.
Keep your fire lit.
Religious or Christian fundamentalists should be very dissatisfied with their commentary here.
Why?
Because here are just 4 good examples of how “good works” should be done and remember also that “faith without works is dead”.
All of us LGBT’s (and everybody else too) should be treated in the folowing way. Don’t recall what the verses are, they are either paraphrases or translations, 3 are from Paul and one from Peter —
1. Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way.
2. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.
3. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
4. Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.
Billysees
@Margie Burns: Re 9
Interesting info about this guy Corkins. Thanks for the link to that site.
Wonder why we’re forgetting the other more “gruesome behaving” gay guy (supposed?) named Luka Rocco Magnotta?
Wonder why there didn’t seem to be much anti-gay backlash because of him?
AaronT
@Marjorie 0120: Interesting manifesto, Marjorie. Perhaps you should actually look at the actions and platform of the Republican party to see if they are doing any of the things you say conservatives should be doing.