NYC Gay Center's Flag Burned

It is perfectly legal to burn a flag in protest. What is not legal is to burn another person's flag in protest. That is unlawful destruction of the person property of another person without their permission. Because the motivation appears clear why they burned the rainbow flag, it is properly a hate crime. As to the unhappy person acting out with a Bible, you can do that because it is your Bible. It is freedom of speech. However, it really serves no purpose but to inflame. You really don't want the religious right to be mad at you, you want them talking to us. We need to print our own Bibles which leaves out the parts about homosexuality. We also need to remind them that the punishment for adultery, and lots of things is death. Ask them if they wear wool and cotton together. There are lots of things in their Bible that they do not follow and they are simply picking and choosing the parts they want to throw at us. We need to point that out in discussions WHEN WE TALK TO THEM.

It is perfectly legal to burn a flag in protest. What is not legal is to burn another person's flag in protest. That is unlawful destruction of the person property of another person without their permission. Because the motivation appears clear why they burned the rainbow flag, it is properly a hate crime. As to the unhappy person acting out with a Bible, you can do that because it is your Bible. It is freedom of speech. However, it really serves no purpose but to inflame. You really don't want the religious right to be mad at you, you want them talking to us. We need to print our own Bibles which leaves out the parts about homosexuality. We also need to remind them that the punishment for adultery, and lots of things is death. Ask them if they wear wool and cotton together. There are lots of things in their Bible that they do not follow and they are simply picking and choosing the parts they want to throw at us. We need to point that out in discussions WHEN WE TALK TO THEM.

Producing more hate speech is not productive. Instead of congratulating yourself for wiping your behind with a page torn from the Bible, why don't you contact media organizations in New York and demand for them to publicize this story? There is a lot of angry energy here, quite understandably, but channel that energy into something positive.

New York does have a hate crimes statute. Prosecutors can ask for a more severe sentence on any crime motivated by animus toward members of a minority, specifically including gay people. The criminals here could be charged with "Arson as a hate crime."

Just asking, is there a law against burning a LGBT flag or will the person who did this will be charged with vandalism?

What a fine example of that heterosexual morality so many of them are running around screaming their heads off about. Morality indeed.

Had this been an American flag that had been defaced and burned, it would be broadcasted all over the news, especially Fox. It's interesting as to how this story gets pushed under the rug, except for respectable outlets such as The Advocate. For years, on the 4th of July I hang the gay flag outside my house because the gay flag is the one that I feel comfortable saluting.

Let's burn down some Church flags, this was done by some neo facist groups in NYC! They are being supported by the Catholic Church and Christain groups.

Gentlemen, and by that I of course mean the gay posters here who have refrained from definite hate speech. Lowering yourselves to the level of these ignorant savages who have baited you does no good. Simply contact the Advocate and they will happily police the board and remove the posts. There is a difference between heated debate and witty rejoindre and the hate posted by straight people who come onto this site to simply provoke.

something tells me that a wascally wesbian was behind it... does anybody else feel the same way? Kind of strange that these "vandals" chose to deface centers only in liberal areas (ny, uc davis, etc.)