Alleged beating of elderly homosexual man proven false

Alleged beating of elderly homosexual man proven false

Authorities in Michigan say a case last month involving the alleged fatal beating of an elderly homosexual man, which was used to promote the need for "hate crimes" legislation, was not a crime after all. A medical examiner's report confirms that the man died of natural causes.

Detroit police were told that 72-year-old Andrew Anthos had been assaulted because of his same-sex preference. According to family members, Anthos said he was riding a city bus home on February 13 when a young man asked him if he was homosexual. The man reportedly followed him off the bus and struck him in the back of the head with a pipe. Anthos died in a Detroit hospital on February 23.

Anthos' death generated numerous stories labeling the reported attack as a "hate crime" -- with headlines such as "Detroit patriot clings to life after hate attack" (Advocate.com, 2/23/07), "Police seek man in hate crime death" (Detroit News, 2/24/07), and "Detroiter in hate-crime beating dies" (Detroit Free Press, 2/25/07). And in early March, the case was cited by U.S. Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan) as evidence of the need to extend so-called "hate crimes" legislation to homosexuals. The Free Press also notes that the executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Matt Foreman, "implicated religious conservatives" after Anthos' death.

But authorities have been unable to identify any witnesses to the alleged beating. And Wednesday, the Wayne County medical examiner concluded that Anthos death was the result of a degenerative natural condition called "spinal stenosis," which typically develops and worsens over a period of years, rather than a criminal assault.

Dr. Carl Schmidt tells the Free Press that the condition causes narrowing of the spine and compression of the spinal cord and nerves. He determined that the nerve compression, combined with arthritis in Anthos' neck, caused him to lose control of his legs and fall.

Schmidt says it was likely a simple movement that triggered the paralysis in Anthos' legs. "He probably just flexed his neck," said the medical examiner, which caused arthritic spurs to compress his spinal cord enough to cause paralysis of his legs.

The paralysis later spread throughout Anthos' body leading to respiratory failure, the official cause of death.

Push for hate crimes legislation expected to continue

Dr. Donald E. Wildmon, founder and chairman of the American Family Association (AFA), says he does not expect any retraction of accusations by homosexual activists -- but he does expect them to continue their push for "hate crimes" legislation, regardless of the facts. He recalls similar reaction to a highly publicized incident in October 1998.

"This really calls to mind the incident in Wyoming a few years ago [when] a young man named Matthew Shepherd supposedly ... was beaten because he was a homosexual," says Wildmon. "The truth later came out that the people who beat him to death did not even know he was a homosexual; they were robbing him."

An incident such as the Shepherd case, says the AFA founder, "gets big play early on" -- but despite later findings, "it's planted in the minds of people who don't hear the truth."

Law enforcement authorities in Detroit say they now consider the Anthos case closed. But at least one Detroit-area homosexual advocacy group, the Triangle Foundation, is hopeful the police will take into account the testimony of Anthos and continue to pursue the case, despite the physical evidence casting doubt on his claims.

Conservative and Christian leaders have argued for years that, if "hate crimes" legislation became law, it could become illegal for pastors to preach from the Bible regarding homosexuality.