Throw Blanket

NEWS:   Gay activists reportedly threw feces at protesters and desecrated the Bible during a confrontation in Germany.

In July 2015, the web site 800 Whistleblower published an undated article titled "Homosexuals Throw Human Excrement at Christians, and Wipe Their Anuses with Pages of the Bible." The page became popular on Facebook (one of several claims alleging abuse of Christians by gay activist) after the June 2015 Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage.

According to the article, parents protesting a "new pro-homosexual 'sexual diversity' curriculum" recently clashed with gay rights proponents:

When up to a thousand conservative Christian parents in Germany were protesting against a new pro-homosexual “sexual diversity” curriculum in their schools, homosexuals charged at them and thew human excrement at the Christians. They also ripped pages of the Bible, wiped their anuses with the pages, crumpled them up and threw them at the Christians.

The event in question took place back in early 2014, however, and the image appended to the article (shown above), assumed by many readers to be a photograph taken from the event in question (particularly because it appeared to depict an activist in the process of throwing something), was repurposed from a personal blog published in Britain. That photograph was demonstrably not taken recently, in Germany, or at a protest: in its original form it was clearly labeled as a personal image snapped at the World Pride event in London in July 2012.

800 Whistleblower cited the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians as a source, from a page titled "Christian Demonstrations Violently Attacked by Left Wing Radicals in Baden-Württemberg and Cologne":

Eyewitnesses told the Observatory: Christian parents were shouted at with obscenities. They were spit at, eggs were thrown and little bags with feces or color. Cables of loud speakers were torn out. Pages were ripped out of the bible and used to wipe backsides, then formed into a ball and thrown at the parents. Christians were deeply hurt in this process. At least one banner was snatched from and destroyed in front of the eyes of the parents. Marshals were target with pepper sprays. Shouting by counter-demonstrator made the planned public speaking partly impossible.

Many parents reported to have been shocked at the amount of the hatred and at the inactivity of the police, and that their religious feelings were severely hurt.

Main source: Eyewitness reports to the Observatory

The page was appended with two YouTube videos: one of the links was to a clip that has since been removed, and the second (dated 1 February 2014) was described by its uploader thusly (as translated from German):

On Saturday, 1 February 2014 a demonstration against the enemy of children and an unlawful education plan of the green-red state government in Baden-Württemberg was held in Stuttgart at the Schlossplatz ... The demonstration against this education plan was attended by some 1,000 people, including many families with children. Unfortunately, the demonstration was illegally blocked by leftist opponents. Since the police did nothing about the illegal blockade and the chairman instead instructed participants to cancel the approved demonstration, the demonstration had to be stopped before they could reach their final destination at the theater house.

Notably, neither the video nor the text description of it includes evidence of "feces throwing" or defiling of the Bible that have appeared in much newer references to it. Moreover, articles contemporaneously published in Germany (in support of the anti-gay protests) made no such allegations in their descriptions of the February 2014 protests:

Especially positive was the large participation of young people and parents with their children. Unfortunately, the protest march had to to be cut short due to lack of police enforcement, which likely [resulted from] a political directive "from above". The about 300 counter-demonstrators were inferior in number, volume and determination to the education plan opponents. The curriculum opponents responded to the decision therefore also with loud chants: "We'll be back"

An account of the protest published 3 February 2014 also lacked the more lurid aspects of later tellings:

[Gay rights activists] interrupted the speeches with heckling and shoving listeners. Some also threw paint bombs. A poster that turned against a Frühsexualisierung of children was set on fire. The curriculum advocates formed a human chain to prevent a protest march through the city center. They also scuffled with the police. The situation was more aggressive than expected. When it became clear that the protest could not take place, the education plan critics ended their protest with the chant "Great God, we praise you".

Yet another account made mention of protesters both supporting and objecting to curriculum changes, but no mention of airborne fecal matter or torn Bible pages:

After a rally at the Schlossplatz, parents wanted to traverse an approved route through Stuttgart. But they did not get far. After only about 100 meters they were met by aggressive counter-demonstrators who created an illegal blockade. They were pelted with eggs, physically attacked, and openly threatened. Leftist counter-demonstrators had erected barricades to block the parents. The police urged the chairman of the protest several times to abandon the demonstration in order to prevent an escalation of violence. The police were apparently not prepared for such violent counter-demonstrators despite repeated advance warnings from the organizers.

Queer.de also reported on the disrupted protest in a 2 February 2014 article:

The education plan's opponents wanted to march from the Palace Square to the State Theatre, but counter-demonstrators blocked the way. There were scuffles and arrests.

Protests did take place in February 2014 in Stuttgart, Germany in respect to gay-friendly curriculum changes in schools. However, even parents protesting the changes did not initially claim that counter-protesters flung feces at them or defaced the Bible. That claim was lifted from a later claim made by an organization whose focus is anti-Christian sentiment in Europe, and its source was listed as "eyewitness accounts" and video. Appended video showed no such behavior, and no accounts published at the time of the protests have emerged so far to support its assertions.

The photograph later appended to the claim (which suggested a "gay protester" was in the process of throwing something from a cupped hand) was taken from a British blogger's 2012 Pride post. The image in no way accurately described the 2014 incident in Germany, and the reason for its selection to illustrate that event is unclear.