Andrew Anthos, a gentle half-Greek half-African American 72-year-old lifelong disabled gay man (whew, that’s a lot of labels for one guy) with a passion for supporting public transportation and military veterans, was on his way home from a Detroit library one Tuesday evening when something bad happened.

What exactly, nobody knows for sure.

What we know is that he was found lying on the pavement at his bus stop and rushed to a hospital, where he died ten days later.  According to a cousin, Athena Fedenis, while he was in the hospital he told her somebody directed hate speech at him because he was gay and then hit him with a lead pipe.

While everybody feels bad about Andrew’s death, what makes this bogus hate crime so important is that it was used as impetus to pass additional hate crime legislation at both the federal level and state level in Michigan.

But guess what: turns out the medical examiner found no impact site on the back of his head that could even create a decent headache.  There was a little gash that was probably created when he fell down, but certainly nothing that caused any brain injury.

And guess what else: turns out Andrew had arthritis and stenosis in his neck, a condition that can cause a sufferer to lose feeling in his legs and fall.

Medical facts don’t lie.  Nobody killed Mr. Anthos with a lead pipe.  But just like they did with Matthew Shepherd’s murder, gay activists insisted upon using this death for political purposes.  Their cold-blooded and callous utilization of a man’s death to promote a political agenda might be the one thing that resembles a hate crime in this sad tale.

Sources:

2/24/07 - Detroit News - Police seek man in hate crime death

3/22/07 - MSNBC - Gay man’s killing may change hate-crime laws

3/29/07 - Detroit Free Press (via BaptistWatch.org) - Anthos’ death blamed on hate is not that at all

4/18/07 - Detroit News - Medical examiner: Spinal disease killed Andrew Anthos

2/7/10 - Zimbio - US Attorney General Sued By Christian Activists Over Hate Crime Law



Posted from Reno, Nevada, USA