Tabloids Claim Co-Pilot Andreas Lubitz Was Gay - The New Civil Rights Movement
British tabloid newspaper The Daily Star is claiming that Andreas Lubitz, the Lufthansa co-pilot authorities say deliberatley crashed the passenger plane he was flying, was secretly gay.
The Daily Star has decided, on very flimsy evidence, that Andreas Lubitz was gay.
The British tabloid was one of several publications that speculated of the infamous Lufthansa co-pilot who is accused of killing 150 people by purposely crashing the passenger plane he was flying into the side of a mountain. But the accusation they make - that Lubitz crashed the plane because he was tormented by his sexuality - is based on very little evidence.
The "gay" rumor spreading across Germany seems to center around the revelation that Lubitz had serious emotional problems he kept hidden, coupled with the report that he recently broke up with his girlfriend. This has been twisted into the story that Lubitz was a gay man forced into the closet, even though Germany is a leader in LGBT rights and Lufthansa, the German company he worked for, is openly LGBT-friendly.
The Independent added to the rank speculation this inconclusive message that a male friend posted to Lubitz’s website after the crash:
"We were only talking yesterday about what we would do together when you came back. You always made me smile."
The Mirror goes one step farther, reporting that Lubitz was "mercilessly taunted" and called a "Trolley Dolly" because, before he became a pilot, he was a member of the cabin crew. (And everyone knows flight attendants are all gay?) The Mirror claims Lubitz was nicknamed “Tomato Andy” because co-workers thought he didn't know if he was a "fruit or veg" - a slang term for someone gay who is living as if he were straight.
The tabloids all seem to have about as much proof that Lubitz was gay as Pat Robertson has when he accuses gays of being responsible for tornadoes and hurricanes. But, hey, why let a search for facts get in the way of a good rumor?
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