David Fowler, president of the Family Action Council of Tennessee (FACT), blamed the December suicide of gay Ashland City teen Jacob Rogers on alcohol and drug abuse and an eating disorder, despite the fact that the teen’s friends have reported that he was bullied by his peers on a daily basis because of his sexual orientation.
The Nashville Scene reported that, according to FACT, Rogers’ suicide was a result of “the rotten fruit of the all-about-me individualist culture that comes when we deny the existence of God and his image in us.”
FACT is currently pushing a state bill that would redefine school bullying polices so as not to “infringe upon the First Amendment rights of students” and not to “prohibit their expression of religious, philosophical, or political views as long as such expression does not include a threat of physical harm to a student or of damage to a student’s property.” In other words, this bill would make it easier for young Christian conservatives to bully gay kids, so long as they don’t threaten them, beat them up, or break their stuff.
