Friday, December 18, 2015

Verdict in Philadelphia Gay-Bashing Case from 2014: Catholic Juror Notes (and Deplores) Catholic School Connection of the Assailants




And another quote to share with you this evening (well, it's evening in my neck of the woods): as many of you may now have read, Kathryn Knott, one of those charged in the Philadelphia gay-bashing incident in which two gay men were assaulted by folks leaving a restaurant gathering of graduates of a local Catholic high school in September 2014, has been found guilty of assault. Here's John Kopp reporting on the verdict at Philly Voice:


[Juror Joan] Bellinger, a 67-year-old Catholic woman from Logan, said she was offended by Knott and the group that encountered the couple, noting many went to Catholic school together. She was emotional as she spoke afterward, expressing remorse for the victims. 
"I just felt so bad for them," Bellinger said. "This is so unnecessary. It just never should have happened. Everything about it was wrong. It's just not fair to them. It's not fair to anyone with any sensibility, whatsoever."

You'll recall that we discussed the fact (and here) that all of those who assaulted the gay couple were from the same Catholic school in the Philadelphia area, Archbishop Wood Catholic High School, and, before they encountered and beat the gay couple, they had just come from a restaurant where they had gathered with other classmates of that school.

Is anyone reading this blog aware of anything the archbishop of Philadelphia, Charles Chaput, has said in any unambiguous, direct way to condemn bashing gay folks in the name of Catholic values? As David Badash pointed out when Chaput issued a short, evasive statement after this gay bashing occurred, he could not find it in his vocabulary even to say the word "gay."

(Thanks to Greg Bullough for sending me the link to the Philly Voice article.)

For the credit for this graphic, please see the previous posting.

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