Back in June, Ethan Stables was arrested before realizing a “murderous attack” he’d planned for a Pride celebration in Cumbria.
The 20-year-old, a white supremacist, intended to slash at attendees with a machete in Barrows-in-Furness, his hometown.
Stables shared his plan with a far-right-leaning Facebook group, and a member happened to see the message, issued a warning on Twitter, and called the police.
“I’ve had enough,” Stable allegedly wrote in a group chat. “I don’t want to live in a gay world and I sure as hell don’t want my children living in one.”
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In court, prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford characterized Stables as a “white supremacist” possessing a “deep-seated hatred” for Muslims, Jews, black people, and “especially gay people.”
Now Stables is denying he planned any sort of terroristic attack, telling the court he’s not homophobic at all.
He says he’d written the posts simply to get a rise out of friends, adding: “Actually I am bisexual.”
Related: Neo-Nazi’s plan to massacre gay people foiled after he brags about it on Facebook
BBC News reports Stables talked about a sexual experience he’d had with another man. He claimed he was worried about opening up about his bisexuality because he didn’t know how his family would react.
Sandiford said the assertion that Stables merely wanted to impress friends was “nonsense,” and asked why Stables’ alleged bisexuality had never been mentioned before.
“Between 2016 and his arrest in 2017,” Sandiford said, “he was planning and preparing to commit acts of terrorism directed towards members of these groups but, primarily, directed towards people who were lesbian or gay”
“His purpose in these acts of preparation was to launch a murderous attack on members of these communities – in particular, the prosecution suggests, people who were gay.”
According to reports, Stables had been researching weapons for months, including how to build explosives and firearms.
He’d allegedly stockpiled several weapons including knives, an axe, a machete, an air rifle, and a ball bearing gun, and bought these weapons after becoming “enraged” about the Pride event in his hometown.
Stables’ lawyer, Patrick Upward QC, calls him a “fantasist” and says he has Asperger’s Syndrome. He also mentioned an openly gay uncle and a black best friend.
The trial is ongoing.
h/t: Gay Times
Ummmm Yeah
It’s not self loathing gays that are the problem. It’s self loathing bisexuals. That’s why they are always married to some dumb money grubbing women for year and years.
Donston
Gay, gay-leaning, straight-leaning, queer, whatever. No matter where you are on the spectrum or the dimensions of your orientation, it’s pretty easy to develop internalized homophobia, internalized trans-phobia, self-loathing, self-destructive instincts, misandry, misogyny, violent instincts, continuous depression, etc. And it’s easy for a number of different reasons. Just like prejudice and hatred in general are fairly easy to develop and occur in many different types. Also, let’s not act like there’s not a long list of men who have long-term relationships with idiotic, money-grubbing men.
Honestly, it’s impossible to tell the nature of his orientation, especially when someone is this troubled and seems to be driven by a lot of different psychological things. In fact, there’s a decent chance this outing was concocted by and leaked by his legal team to get greater sympathy.
Kangol
Whatever. Yet another white closeted nutcase who wanted to murder gay people. Ummmm Yeah, you defending him?
Donston
I’m trying to figure out what race has to do with this story. However, when a story about a black homophobe is posted you claim racism or that this site is too focused on “black homophobia”. Please get your sh*t together. You’re making us non-white gay/gay-leaning people look very messy with constant shoehorning comments like these. Also, I don’t see anyone defending anybody in that particular comment.
Kangol
@Donston, did you even read the story? “I’m trying to figure out what race has to do with this story.”
The story says, “The 20-year-old, a white supremacist, intended to slash at attendees with a machete in Barrows-in-Furness, his hometown.”
and
“In court, prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford characterized Stables as a ‘white supremacist’ possessing a “deep-seated hatred” for Muslims, Jews, black people, and “especially gay people.”
What about this story having to do with “race” and “racism” don’t you get? Ummmm Yeah is always claiming that Black homophobes are the problem. Homophobes are the problem. But he always finds a way to excuse or defend white racist homophobes. That’s what I’m saying. What don’t you grasp about that?
Donston
Yes, I read the story. There was no reason for you to bring up race in your comment, going so far as to accuse someone of defending this dude when there was no type of defending anyone in that post. Whenever it’s a “wrong-doing” white guy there you are throwing further dirt on them. But when there’s a “wrong-doing” black guy there you are trying to defend them or claim that this site is racist. That type of bias is obvious and doesn’t help eradicate homophobia or racism.
jd.cali
The trend of self hating queers and terrorism is getting serious and concerning
ChrisK
Our closeted brothers are the most dangerous. Like the guy who stabbed that student after they had sex. 20 times is obvious self hate.
ChrisK
The only truthful thing that he said was that he was Bi. Most likely gay though. The rest is saying whatever it takes to get him free. Talk is talk but actively researching and stockpiling weapons to carry it out shows definite intent.
Donston
Yes, no one’s gonna buy, “I was just kidding ya’ll”.
Nahald
If he isn’t, he’ll become Bi very quickly in jail and have no say in the matter.
JaredMacBride
All racists have a “Black best friend.” It’s a requirement to join the club.
DCguy
This is like a rapist trying to claim he loves women as a defense in court.
Donston
Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon. A few years ago I got into a disrupt with some guy in a restaurant. He kept saying randomly homophobic things. When he became too loud and the restaurant was forced to kick him out he said he wasn’t homophobic and that he had the right to say homophobic things because he’d had sex with a couple guys before. My husband and I made jokes about that moments for months.
Some people don’t seem to understand that who date, who have sex with now, who you’ve had sex with in the past, even your identity- none of that has to do with your psychological state or who you have hate for.
charlie_jackpot
I know it’s the wrong thing to be focusing on but it’s Barrow-in-Furness not Barrows
Bryguyf69
“Stables shared his plan with a far-right-leaning Facebook group, and a member happened to see the message, issued a warning on Twitter, and called the police.”
—–
While I’m no fan of the far right, the most interesting part of this story for me is the hero(?) who reported him to the authorities. Most people, even liberals, would just ignore him or laugh it off as the braggadocious rants of a lunatic. We see it all the time on YouTube (about half of the comments in my most popular video, with over 6,700,000 videos, are racist or hateful — so I too, am guilty of apathy ). Yet this unnamed person not only Tweeted out a warning but also alerted the police.
As an afterthought, I should point out that Queerty is again vague in its writing. Was this person “a member” of the far right Facebook group, or merely a member of Facebook? The latter would make more sense but the former would make him/her more heroic. The far right isn’t known for its concern for gay lives. In fact, warning gays and getting Stables arrested are betrayals that could endanger the life of the snitch.
Bryguyf69
* “… with over 6,700,000 views…”
Damn autocorrect!
gaytodosean
Hate can be found anywhere, like small minds, uneducated bigots, misogynists Scary to know they are out there, bubbling away, looking for a focus for their indiscriminate hatred. Unfortunately, these people are out there and you never know when you are going to meet one.
On another note, I visited Barrow in Furness once a few years back, the backend of nowhere. Limited entertainment other than pubs and a ‘village’ mentality for what is a town. Wonder if it has changed any? If Pride was going to be held there than possible?
Sean http://www.gaytodo.com
Jaxton
All men who are sexually attracted to women also have homosexual impulses. Whether these men choose to identify as bisexual or admit to these impulses depends on their values and the environment within which they live.
If you don’t value GLBT identity politics, you are less likely to identify as bisexual. Indeed, most men fall into this category.
If you live in an environment surrounded by women to whom you are sexually attracted, you are less likely to admit to having homosexual impulses. That’s because women feel threatened by men who can swing both ways.
Josh12345
Not all. Many gay guys get sick at the thought of being intimate with a girl. Reason would suffice many straight guys would feel similarly towards guys. With that said, there are many more bi guys who never come out and a lot less straight guys than people think.
Luckily times are changing for us bi guys, albiet and unfortunately slowly.
Donston
Jaxton/Brian uses the theory that everyone’s a lil’ gay in order to undermine the “gay movement” and belittle gay men. If there’s no such thing as a “gay” man only “gay identifying” men then he doesn’t have to feel apart of the club and he can feel more comfortable within his internalized homophobia. He doesn’t seem to understand that there are plenty of men who are 100% straight or gay. Or rather, he understands this, but embracing that reality would force him to break down his strong internalized homophobia and his sense of self. This is a story about a man who planned on killing people based on their orientation or “lifestyle”. Yet, Jaxton/Brian somehow once again tried to turn it into a discussion about “identity politics” and finding ways to criticize women and gay men. This dude wasn’t planning on killing women or straight people. His anger and resentment (outside of race) veered greatly towards gay men. Jaxton/Brian probably embraces and respects that resentment.
I do believe that no more than 40% of people are truly, thoroughly and completely straight or gay. I don’t identify as “bi” myself, because although I have some attraction to women sometimes and have had relationships with women, ultimately, my substantial and persistent desire, passion, arousal, romantic instincts and romantic satisfaction veer greatly towards guys, and that’s something I embraced quite a while ago. I don’t value “identity politics”. I value identifying as what I feel is a specific and authentic representation of what I am. That’s a completely different thing. Valuing “identity politics” is what actually leads to someone having the mentality of Jaxton/Brian or using identity to manipulate themselves or others.
inbama
I will repeat this over and over as long as people keep repeating nonsense.
“Sexual Identity” is meaningless nonsense that has crept into LGB lives courtesy the trans movement.
Sexual Orientation is a physical trait. Your attraction to males, females or both is not just provable but actually measurable.
Donston
This is way off. Don’t state things like they’re facts when they’re not.
The “orientation debate” came along long before the trans movement genuinely took hold. I don’t see any reason to randomly throw out such trans-phobic nonsense. If you look up orientation now you get a tons of different definitions. So, your definition is just one of many. Also, there hasn’t been any scientific study that can prove levels of attractions. Kinsey’s studies were biased, old-fashion and weren’t at all scientific. While modern studies have consistently ended up with mixed results. In fact, in almost every modern scientific study focused on male bisexuality the conclusion has been that the guys were either gay or straight. I highly doubt they’ll ever be a study to accurately comprehend someone’s level of attraction, arousal, desire, passion, romantic interest and romantic satisfaction. Orientation can be a complicated beast. It just is what it is.
So, you have to trust people with being honest about themselves and finding identities that suit their orientations. Yes, that can lead to manipulation and identities that are more driven by things like sociology, ego, behavior, religious beliefs, money, etc. rather than the reality of themselves. But it’s all we’ll ever have.
Jaxton
I never said all men are gay. Gay is identity. It requires you to make a choice. It’s not a popular choice.
I have simply said that all men have homosexual impulses but most won’t admit it because of the innate hostility of women toward male bisexuality in its various strengths.
Nahald
So now he is claiming he’s bisexual? Yeah right. Just an excuse by a dirtbag. And if he isn’t bisexual, he better become one when he’s in jail.
Rex Huskey
hehehehe
seaguy
The only thing bi about this guy is that is what the judge is hopefully going to say to him when he is sent to prison.
Rex Huskey
another f*cking crazy as hell bisexual.
LibraOracle
WHY DO BIGOTS ALWAYS PRETEND BEING “BISEXUAL” AS AN EXCUSE TO RECEIVE SYMPATHY? IT’S THE NEW I’M NOT RACIST I HAVE BLACK FRIEND BULLSHIT.