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The Austin Bomber's Alleged Antigay History

Mark Conditt

A blogger with the same name and hometown as the Austin bomber wrote that being gay is "unnatural" in posts from 2012. 

The 23-year-old man who planted several bombs around Austin over a period of 19 days, murdering two men and injuring others before blowing himself up, allegedly wrote about his anti-LGBT and anti-abortion views in 2012 blog posts.

The bomber, Mark Conditt, confessed in a 25-minute video recorded shortly before his death to terrorizing the city of Austin for the better part of March. Meanwhile, authorities discovered blog posts for an Austin Community College U.S. government course in which one blogger who wrote about his anti-marriage equality views identified as Mark Conditt from Pflugerville, Texas, according to ABC affiliate WQAD.

While authorities have not confirmed that the blogger and the bomber are the same person, there has been only one person with that name to live in that town, according to public records.

In posts on the course site, the blogger wrote in an argument against marriage equality that being gay is "unnatural," before going on a diatribe about the nature of genitalia.

"Just look at the male and female bodies. They are obviously designed to couple. The natural design is apparent," the blogger wrote. "It is not natural to couple male with male and female with female. It would be like trying to fit two screws together and to nuts together and then say, 'See, it's natural for them to go together.'"

Conditt, who was homeschooled in a Christian home and described by a former friend as having a deep faith, rarely posted on social media. If the blog posts are proven to be from him, it could lend insight into his ideology beyond the fact that he appeared to target people of color, leaving bombs on the doorsteps of the two men he killed and two women he injured -- the men he murdered were black, as is one of the women he injured. The other injured woman is Latina, according to CNN.

"We cannot rule out hate, but we're not saying it's hate," Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said earlier this month about the possibility that the crimes were racially motivated.

In addition to his views on marriage equality, the blogger wrote, "First, if a women does not want a baby, or is incapable of taking care of one, she should not participate in activities that were made for that reason. Second, if we are going to give women free abortions, why not give men free condoms, or the like? Is it not up to the couple to take these preventive measures?"

He also argued in favor of abolishing sex offender registries.

"So you have a guy who committed a crime. Will putting him on a (sex offender) list make it better? wouldn't this only make people shun him, keep him from getting a job, and making friends?" The blogger argued. "Just for a crime that he may have committed over 15 years ago as a adolescent? On a side note, one-fifth of all rapes are committed by a juvenile."

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Tracy E. Gilchrist