Family Research Council Shooter Charged with Assault with a Weapon

A man who was apparently sympathetic to LGBT people walked into the lobby of the anti-gay Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., and shot a staff member who was standing guard.

In an era when non-Islamic terrorism in America comes predominantly from the extreme right, it was a remarkable and unusual event: A man who was apparently sympathetic to LGBT people walked into the lobby of the anti-gay Family Research Council (FRC) in Washington, D.C., and shot a staff member who was standing guard.

Prosecutors say that when Floyd Lee Corkins II encountered building manager Leo Johnson at the FRCā€™s headquarters on Aug. 15, he said something like ā€œI donā€™t like your politicsā€ and opened fire. Johnson was hit in the arm, but managed to tackle Corkins and, with help, wrestle his gun away. Corkins was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and could face up to 55 years in prison.

A native of Herndon, Va., Corkins has a masterā€™s degree in education and human development from George Mason University and was working as a volunteer at The DC Center, a community center for Washingtonā€™s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. At the time of the attack, he was carrying a bag of sandwiches from Chick-fil-A, which made headlines this summer when its president announced his opposition to same-sex marriage.

Before the day was out, the National Organization for Marriage, the leading opponent of same-sex marriage in America, was blaming the Southern Poverty Law Center for the attack because the SPLC had two years earlier named the FRC as a hate group. The next day, FRC President Tony Perkins made a similar accusation at a crowded press conference, saying Corkins had been ā€œgiven a license to shoot an unarmed manā€ by the SPLCā€™s ā€œreckless use of terminology.ā€

The SPLC responded with a statement emphasizing that it had always opposed political violence, from the left or the right, in a democracy. It also disputed Perkinsā€™ televised claim that FRC was listed as a hate group because it opposed same-sex marriage, pointing out that at the time of the initial listing, the SPLC said the listing was based on FRCā€™s propagation of known falsehoods about gay people ā€” in particular, the claim that large numbers of gay men are child molesters.

ā€œPerkins and his allies, seeing an opportunity to score points, are using the attack on their offices to pose a false equivalency between the SPLCā€™s criticisms of the FRC and the FRCā€™s criticisms of LGBT people,ā€ SPLC Senior Fellow Mark Potok wrote. ā€œThe FRC routinely pushes out demonizing claims that gay people are child molesters and worse ā€” claims that are provably false. It should stop the demonization and affirm the dignity of all people.ā€