Contact: Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth, 630-546-4439

NAPERVILLE, Ill., Nov. 13 /Christian Newswire/ -- Americans For Truth blacked out the front page of its website today, with the following message:

“The Americans For Truth website is blacked out today, the anniversary of the brutal murder of Mary Stachowicz by homosexual Nicholas Gutierrez. Four years ago on this date (Nov. 13, 2002), Gutierrez raped and sodomized Mary, and stabbed, beat and strangled her to death before hiding her bloodied, mangled body in his crawl space. Gutierrez later claimed that Mary, a Catholic mother of four devoted to her family and her church, had inspired the assault by "taunting" him about his homosexuality—a blatant and bigoted appeal to liberal stereotypes of Christians as crazed ‘homophobes.’

“This screen is also symbolic of the media blackout of the Stachowicz case and the trial of Gutierrez. The same media that hyped the murder of homosexual Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard as a "hate crime" showed little if any interest in Mary's case—demonstrating that in the eyes of the media, some victims are more important than others.”

“The media drive the "gay" agenda in this country by choosing what to cover and what to ignore,” said Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans For Truth.  “The brutal murder of Mary Stachowicz was no less ‘hateful’ than the murder of homosexual Matthew Shepard—yet only one case, Shepard’s, is celebrated as a ‘hate crime’ and even used as a teaching tool for American schoolchildren.  That’s just plain wrong, especially since Shepard's murder was not the clear-cut ‘hate crime’ it was portrayed to be.” (ABC reported that his killers were motivated by drugs and money, not anti-gay hate.)

On Nov. 3, a Chicago jury found Gutierrez guilty of first-degree murder and rape.  He could be sentenced to the death penalty next month.

Focusing on Associated Press’ failure to cover the Stachowicz case (AP ignored the Gutierrez murder trial), AFT has asked people to “tell AP that  ‘gay’ victims are no more important than Christian victims. Hate is hate--and that there is no logical reason why Shepard's case deserves any more coverage than Stachowicz’s.”

See AFT ‘s online story: Matthew Shepard vs. Mary Stachowicz: Why Did AP Hype One Murder Victim and Ignore the Other?.

Americans For Truth is dedicated to equipping Americans to confront the homosexual and transgender activist agendas. Phone: 630-717-7631.  AFT, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522. E-mail: americansfortruth@comcast.net.