An update to the story about the Baltimore area woman who allegedly received a letter criticizing her “relentlessly gay” lawn art. Julie Baker responded by posting the letter to the internet and raising $43,000 to further gay-ify her property.
But there are now questions regarding the whole situation, with many people noting that the letter and writing from Baker both feature the same kind of unusual capitalization errors. It got to the point that the myth-busting experts at Snopes got involved, posting the results of their investigation into the “Relentlessly Gay” situation:
On 24 June 2015 we spoke to a detective at Baker’s local precinct, to whom we were referred by individuals connected with the Relentlessly Gay campaign. Although Baker had stated the previous day that police were “satisfied” with her claim, the detective to whom we spoke said that Baker was either unwilling or unable to produce the letter in question, and that she had maintained it was no longer in her possession. The detective also indicated that he had attempted to meet with Baker in person the previous day but was unable to do so.
Snopes didn’t end up making a final determination on the truthiness of the story, but the questions remained. For her part, Baker maintains the letter is legitimate. Via the Daily Caller:
“On a sadder note, the world is filled with hate and fear, as such I want to work to remove any doubt about the authenticity of the letter,” she wrote in a status update posted Monday night. “Until then I am not taking a dime out of this account. Please carry on with flooding the world with rainbows and joy, be relentlessly generous, be relentlessly compassionate, be relentlessly vibrant and stay relentlessly gay.” Just how the note might be authenticated as a genuine attack is not clear.
So, it sounds like we may never know for sure whether this “relentlessly gay” letter was real or not. But it’s a good reminder for anyone making GoFundMe donations to take a close look at what you’re supporting and make sure it passes a sniff test. Hoaxes aren’t just for Nigerian royalty anymore, and even if this story was true, the amount of money raised is sure to encourage future scammers to try their luck at profiting off manufactured internet outrage.
(via Snopes)