Rightwing Calls FBI on Blogger Joe My God

Joe Jervis is not afraid of antigay activists like Maggie Gallagher, Matt Barber, and Peter LaBarbera, but they may be afraid of him. Barber recently alerted the FBI about comments made on Jervis's gay news blog Joe.My.God, claiming they amounted to terrorist threats.

In a post from last week, Jervis wrote about LaBarbera -- president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality -- taking umbrage with the group Stand for Marriage and its successful campaign to ban same-sex marriage in Maine. In its commercials, Stand for Marriage advocated against same-sex marriage, but endorsed Maine's domestic-partnership laws.

LaBarbera wrote on the website of AFTAH, "We who claim to follow God are lacking in integrity if we promote the normalization of homosexuality as part of some (perhaps well-intentioned) utilitarian plan to ostensibly 'save' traditional marriage. Indeed, the irony of the ad text above is that progressive concessions on 'domestic partnership' and 'civil unions' legislation will, in fact, dismantle traditional marriage... It's time to reject Political Correctness and get back to basics in the pro-family movement."

When Jervis pointed out LaBarbera's thinking -- that gays should not be allowed any relationship protections whatsoever -- his readers were incensed. A commenter was worried that efforts by people like LaBarbera would incite violence: "What I fear is that once gay and lesbian people give up hope of achieving equality through nonviolent means, there will be radicals who will begin to hunt down haters like LaBarbera and Gallagher."

A Joe.My.God reader replied to that comment by writing, "You say this like it's a bad thing? Maybe a bit of well organized terrorism is just what we need, er, I mean 'civil disobedience.'"

Liberty Council president Matt Barber, another enemy of same-sex marriage, alerted the FBI to this comment, citing the recent mass murder at Fort Hood as reason for federal authorities to get involved. Jervis -- even though he has yet to hear from the FBI -- has since taken the post down.

In an e-mail to Advocate.com, Jervis writes, "Even a casual reading of the comments in question will show that no direct threats of 'terrorism' were made towards anyone. In fact, the comment that LaBarbera has fed to every right wing news site in the country actually expresses concern that an unbalanced person might do something violent and hurt the LGBT cause in doing so. But that doesn't matter to the Christian right, who in an internet game of 'Telephone' have ratcheted up the story to the point where it looks like I, myself, have made terrorist threats."