Rachel Tabachnick of Talk2Action is one of the premier writers on the Religious Right. Here is what she had to say about the background of the FRC shooter and claims that he came from a lefty background:
Within hours of the shooting at the Family Research Council in D.C., rightwing organizations were claiming that the episode was the result of “anti-Christian” and “radical homosexual” ideology. Police arrested 28 year old Floyd Corkins, Jr., who had volunteered for several months at the front desk of an LGBT center. But according to numerous press reports, Corkins attended Grace Brethren Christian School (GBCS) in Clinton, Maryland. He would have graduated about ten years ago, but if the information about his educational background in the press is correct, Corkins spent his formative years in a conservative Christian school with a very strict anti-homosexual policy.
The point is not that this school should in any way be tainted by Corkins’ horrific and senseless crime, but to counter the wave of claims coming from FRC and similar organizations that this shooter is obviously the product of “anti-Christian” hatred or environment. There has been little public information made available about Corkins, but it is almost certain that he was not raised in a Marxist/atheist/radical homosexual environment as some rightwing sources immediately claimed. If the news reports are correct, the shooter came from a conservative Christian environment and attended a school which refuses admission to homosexuals or students with homosexuals in their family.
Once again, the religious right distorts reality to make it fit into its bizarre narrative.
