The atmosphere in North Carolina is growing more hostile by the day. Now that LGBTQ discrimination is officially legal in the Tar Heel State, antigay terrorists have decided to kick things up a notch by burning rainbow flags outside of LGBTQ-friendly churches.
After the state’s homophobic governor Pat McCrory signed HB2 into law last month, effectively legalizing hate and discrimination against LGBTQ people in North Carolina, the United Church of Christ in Hillsborough raised two rainbow flags as a show of solidarity with the gay community.
Related: So North Carolina Just Became The Most Homophobic State In The Nation
The small, 110-member church wanted “to let the [LGBTQ] community know there was a church that supported them and welcomed them,” Rev. Jay Kennett told the News & Observer. He added that members felt it was important “not to hide from who we are and how we share God’s love.”
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Then, over the weekend, someone ripped down the flags and set them ablaze, leaving the charred remains strewn across the church lawn for church members to find when they arrived for service the next morning.
“I don’t know how you can’t take it personally,” Brent Denisar-Green said. He and his husband, James, are members of the church and were married there last year. “What crossed my mind was how hateful. I just couldn’t believe somebody would do that, especially to a church.”
“I would challenge them to come and actually visit our church,” James added. “We’re open to all, even those who burn flags.”
Kennett called the flag burning “sad.”
“I have to say there’s a little bit of anger there, too,” he added. “I just grieve that somebody would do that.”
The church has already replaced the flags. Efforts by the News & Observer to reach the Orange County Sheriff’s Office were unsuccessful.
robho3
Ah the south ……
JerseyMike
@robho3: Hate isn’t a southern thing only dude.. Jersey has more hate groups than any state in the union..
JerseyMike
The good folks in Carolina need to rise up against this crazy shit.. The good rep Carolina was getting is going down the toilet.
Ron King
Lowlife Christian Creeps,spreading the gospel
John Malin
If they were spreading the Gospel, it would be love and understanding, not burning flags.
Noel Hoklin
Idk there seems to be a lot needless mass murder in the bible
Ramjet
It is not too much of a jump from cross burning to burning the rainbow flag.
Chris Long
It seems that they have finally moved up from burning crosses on people’s lawns
Antony Nguyen
Burning rainbow flags in front of places, burning cross on lawns. Connection of hate
John Kuehnle
Is that considered a hate crime in NC
Bradley Shade
#cunts4christ
Martin Michalczyk
Just another state not to visit. Sadly have family members there
Celtic
You can’t fix stupid and you can’t change hate where hate does not want to be changed. North Carolina has a large population of poorly educated who have been churched in the temples of Satan. They thrive on hatred and intolerance. That is their thrill. They are self-righteous, ignorant hypocrites and bigots.
David Harlem
Maybe we should be burning the confederate flag in front of their gun shops, churches, state capitol building and public restrooms.
Jim Guinnessey
Look to the KKK and Evangelical-Baptist church sponsored and funded anti LGBT activities. These protests have sponsors in the South and they usually originate from Evangelical, Baptist and other low brow Protestant pastors who maintain a weird stranglehold on their constituents.
Uncle Mark
So now it’s okay in NC to vandalize and burn church property, if it doesn’t align with your religious beliefs? Way to stomp on another church’s religious freedom and free speech, NC. I guess this religious freedom nonsense only applies to the conservative “Christian” churches.
TimberWolf
How incredibly hateful and ignorant to burn flags. Using any religion to justify hate is cowardly excuse to spread personal hate and ignorance. These fanatics of hate fuel nothing but ignorance with not a clear conscience of peace and understanding. This hateful HB2 will only change when the people of North Carolina rise and have it over turned,thrown out. This governor should be forced to step down
LubbockGayMale
Ah, NC religious freedom: my religious freedom can over-ride your religious freedom if I don’t like you or your beliefs!?!?!? So sad.
Will Clemons
As a Private investigator I am a bit suspicious that this maybe an attention seeking force
Uncle Mark
@LubbockGayMale: You know this is but a taste, if certain political & religious leaders are able to turn this nation into a theocracy. If that happens, I’ll be watching the religious civil wars from the safety of Canada.
mezzacanadese
Don;t these nut cakes have anything better to do? Maybe if we ignore them they will go away. They are looking for publicity.
Alex Kyle-Thundershield Simmons
Anyone that believes in these stupid ass BS laws, would probably shoot at an actual RAINBOW, too while they’re at it, lol
customartist
Has someone filed an actual Police Report so that there is a record of this happening?
scotshot
@David Harlem: Why should we lower ourselves into the toilet with them? We’re better than that.
Patrick Crawford
thats ok because when i moved back to IL from NC a few years…threw my NC drivers license in a fire pit…
captainburrito
Make the flag pole live… fry them next time.
Tony Chaplinski
no explaining stupicity
Mack
@John Kuehnle: The only hate crime in North Carolina would be against anti LGBT. With the new law passed and signed last week it’s open season on gays.
oldgayvermonter
Screw NC and the bigot a-holes that elect the legislators and the gov! It’s not the “state”, it’s not the GLBT minority, it IS bigot voters living in some fairyland “Christian” theocracy that deserve the blame for decent folks just not wanting to have anything to do with NC anymore. No more trips to the OBX for us!
Daniel Stewart
sending non-military on-duty units——this is epidemic and just crazy.
joeyty
Totally stupid. But…whatever. Flags aren’t people.
joeyty
@Will Clemons: “As a Private investigator I am a bit suspicious that this maybe an attention seeking force” It COULD be a fraud, yes. Let’s wait and see.
He BGB
I hope the law doesn’t make North Carolina and Mississippi rednecks think this law is a green light to harm gay people. Welcome back to 1955.
joeyty
@He BGB: Or gangstas.
He BGB
All this over fear of a transgenderpeople using certain bathrooms? Crazy redneck governors are going to have some major problems in their states. Rednecks are gonna think it’s okay now to lynch gay people. Gay men will be the first to get it like the African American population did evades ago.
joeyty
@He BGB: Most of the anti-gay murders in NC are within the African-American community, though. So don’t stereotype.
Duncan Noel Campbell
Charming.
Stan Schulz
Watch this turn out to be another hoax.
joeyty
@Stan Schulz: Secret flag burnings usually do turn out to be hoaxes by the “victims”.
Js Soandso
It isn’t all of NC.
strix1
HB2…just another step backwards…it gets exhausting sometimes. Uphill battle.
grethomory
It’s Trump’s fault, lol
onthemark
@joeyty: “Usually”? You got a cite for that? How do you know “usually”?
The flags in the photo obviously would be easy to set alight, especially at night. By a random homophobic passerby or otherwise.
Of course, this COULD be a hoax. But probably not easy to prove in even this one case, let alone “usually”?
joeyty
@onthemark: No cite for it, but every case of it I remember turned out to be a hoax (or at least the actual perp was one of the alleged intended targets). Beware of cases this melodramatic. And even if it’s real, so what ? Some little creep sneaking round.
onthemark
@joeyty: “So what?” Seriously? Well, if it’s real and not a hoax, it’s still vandalism and destruction of someone else’s property and an actual crime.
Unlike, for instance, someone anonymously calling someone who is not even present a “mick,” which I realize upsets you so-o-o-o much! There’s a difference.
joeyty
@onthemark: No…pouring gasoline over a dog and setting it on fire because somebody is a mick is what upsets me.
joeyty
@onthemark: I guess you don’t know the difference between a flag burning and a dog burning. Or people burning on 9-11.
onthemark
@joeyty: Burning a dog is a crime, OBVIOUSLY.
And again, you are acting like gay people committed 9/11! But I don’t even believe you when you say anyone “cheered” it. Any more than I believe Trump when he says the exact same thing.
brucebruce836
@Martin Michalczyk: I know how u feel. I live in MD now but went to college there and one of my best friends is having a party for her bday. However, I cannot and will not be giving a dime to travel and stay there. If they can’t except me for just being who I am then they can’t except a penny from me either.
gaym50ish
What’s almost as scary is that the reporters couldn’t reach the sheriff’s office. Does it have to be a 911-worthy emergency to get through to law enforcement in that community?
Daggerman
…Oh my, they really are fucking jerks! There ought to be a law preventing them from doing these unreasonable harmful acts. They should not be allowed to do all this. People need to understand that anti-gay shitheads are the fools because remarkably and quite possibly they’re GAY themselves which makes the whole issue more annoying…
GC1985
@joeyty: Arson is a crime, dummy. Arson on a flag could also spread to the property and potentially hurt or kill someone. You obviously have a few screws loose and you don’t know what you are talking about. Here you are again excusing antigay behavior like you always do. Useless troll.
@onthemark: What do you expect from him? Joeyty is uneducated and has no proof for anything he says.
brandon
Let’s remember that it’s not the whole state of North Carolina making a hobby of burning rainbow flags. This fight has been heating up across the whole country and hate could happen just about anywhere, but so can love.
BRENT
Please don’t think this is any kind of criticism, but could someone please explain why all these dreadful stories seem to come from America when we just don’t have anything like this going on in the UK. Is it fundamentalist Christianity or what? I mean, there has to be some sort of explanation…
Dakotahgeo
@BRENT: Innate stupidity, lack of education, and fundamentalist Christianity! Oops, sorry, I repeated myself three times.
1EqualityUSA
Brent, Lack of education. This is why the GOP is cutting funding for education. They need a new supply of voters in the coming elections. Zika virus is the gift that keeps on giving as far as voting demographics 18 years from now, that’s why abortion will be fought against by the Tedious Right.
Mikah92
Burning flags in the name of God? How very KKK.
Celtic
@Mikah92: Yep. That’s what those redneck Xtians do. Preach Jesus and then go out and hate the world. The problem is, the Jesus they claim to love and worship is a myth that never existed. That “Jesus” is some demonic icon that shores up all their hate-filled, negative psyches.