Gay Man Sues Bible Publishers for Mental Distress

Bradley LaShawn Fowler, 39, from Michigan is suing two major Christian publishers for "violating his constitutional rights and causing emotional pain" because the Bible versions they publish refer to homosexuality as a sin.

He is seeking $60 million from Zondervan and $10 million from Thomas Nelson Publishing.

Is this a case for Alan Shore from BOSTON LEGAL?

Fowler claims that the Bibles' references to homosexuality as a sin have made him "an outcast from his family and contributed to physical discomfort and demoralization, chaos and bewilderment," as stated in his complaint.

Fowler further states that Zondervan intended to design a religious, sacred document to reflect an individual opinion or a group’s conclusion to cause “me or anyone who is a homosexual to endure verbal abuse, discrimination, episodes of hate, and physical violence … including murder."

Fowler spent 15 years in prison, where he became interested in studying the Bible. His case involves the following changes in said bibles:

In 1970, I Corinthians 6:9 read as followed-

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulteres, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effiminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind.

In 1982 ,the same scripture read like this-

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodimites.

In 2001 the same scripture reads like this-

Surely you know that the people who do wrong will not inherit God’s kingdom. Do not be fooled, those who sin sexually, worship idols, take part in adultery, those who are male prostitutes, or men who have sexual relations with other men, those who steal, are greedy, get drunk, lie about others, or rob, those people will not inherit God’s kingdom.


RECENT HATE CRIMES

July 2008: In Colorado, Allen Ray Andrade, 32, is currently charged with second-degree murder in the death of Angie Zapata, a transgendered woman. They had just met and Zapata had not revealed her gender identity to him. That day, they had a brief sexual encounter and the following day Andrade asked Zapata about her sexual identity to which she replied, "I'm all woman." Then he grabbed Zapata's crotch only to discover male genitalia. He then punched her then proceeded to beat her with a fire extinguisher. As he was trying to remove traces of himself from the apartment, he noticed she was still moving so he beat her until she died.

This will no doubt revive the Homosexual Panic defense.

June, 2008: In Michigan, a lesbian teen was attacked at her school by two school mates because of her outspoken advocacy for LGBT rights. She suffered a bruises, cuts and a broken nose. The attack was videotaped by a fourth student and of course, posted on YOUTUBE.



In June of this year, the brutal killer of out-gay youth Sean Kennedy received only 10 months in jail. Stephen Moller, who jumped from his pick up to attack Sean William Kennedy on May 16th 2007 with a fatal punch to the head was sentenced June 11th to a 5 year suspended sentence to 3 years with 3 years probation after he gets out of jail. He will spend approx. 10 months in jail. After which he is then entitled to parole. If granted he will be on probation for 3 years. He was also sentenced to 30 days community service and ordered to take anger management classes. In addition he was ordered to have alcohol and drug counseling.

Moller called their mutual friend and left this voice message after the attack, "Tell your faggot friend he owes me $500 for breaking my hand."

The statement from Elke Kennedy about "religious truth" and hate crimes.



Meanwhile, in Ventura County, California, Superior Court Judge Douglas Daily ruled last recently that 14-year-old Brandon McInerney, the accused killer of 15-year-old gay classmate Lawrence King, will be tried as an adult.

McInerney's arraignment has been postponed until August 8th to permit his attorney to petition an appellate court for review of Daily's ruling. According to witnesses, McInerney shot King in the head on the morning of February 12th in a crowded classroom at E.O. Green Junior High School in the city of Oxnard.


A study released by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network in 2006 showed that homophobia is widespread in the US school system.

I this study it was reported that nearly one-in-five students reported they had been physically assaulted because of their sexual orientation and over a tenth because of their gender expression.

Three-quarters of students surveyed said that over the past year they heard derogatory remarks such as “faggot” or “dyke” frequently or often at school, and nearly nine out of ten reported hearing “that’s so gay” or “you’re so gay” - meaning stupid or worthless - frequently or often.

pictured, Romaine Patterson at the fence where Matthew Shepard was crucified.




RELATED: The Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007

Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) had introduced a hate-crimes bill to the Senate in 1997, 1999, 2001, and 2003. None were successful. Senator Gordon H. Smith (R-OR) has sponsored or co-sponsored a hate-crimes bill in the senate for the previous five consecutive Congresses. In 2007, they joined to sponsor the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 (s. 1105), which Senators Smith and Kennedy renamed in honor of Matthew Shepard -- the young man who suffered death by crucifixion in Wyoming. Its short title is the: "Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007."

A companion bill was introduced by Representatives John Conyers (D-MI) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) with 171 cosponsors: House Bill H.R. 1592.

“Sexual orientation is the last bastion of acceptable hatred, discrimination and untold bias. Members of this community are being consistently harassed and terrorized. There are still people who think that gays and lesbians should burn in hell.” (Kristin Miccio, associate prof., University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law)

On July 11th 2007, instead of introducing the legislation giving sexual orientation "hate crimes" protection as a separate bill, Senators Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Gordon Smith (R-OR) opted to introduce the "Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act" as one of hundreds of amendments to the Defense Reauthorization bill requested by President Bush.

Sens. Kennedy and Smith's strategy, Staver said, forces the President into a terrible dilemma: President Bush must either approve "hate crimes" legislation or veto the entire spending bill thus leaving US troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan without new support and dwindling resources. Since the President has no line-item veto, approval of the defense bill is an all or nothing deal.

In December, 2007, the Democrats pulled HR 1592 and S.1005 from the Defense Reauthorization Bill. DOA.

Christian Groups are actively working against any Hate Crimes Bills as it would also take into question any clergy preaching hate against homosexuals from the pulpit. The Right Wing Christian groups feel this is an attack on their 1st amendments rights.

“The idea of a ‘hate crime’ is completely contrary to the American principles of free speech and equal protection under the law. Any Senator who voted for this is setting up our children and grandchildren for persecution as activist courts rule that biblical morality is ‘bigotry’," said Robert Knight.