Fag bomb

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This article is about the controversial Afghanistan War photograph. For the chemical weapon, see gay bomb.

The "fag bomb" was an otherwise-typical U.S. military fighter-mounted bomb (a GBU-31 JDAM), photographed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise in October 2001 during the United States' invasion of Afghanistan. On October 11th, while being readied to a fighter for deployment in an air mission above Afghanistan, the bomb was defaced with graffiti (a "message" to the bomb's targets) by an unidentified U.S. Navy sailor with the following phrase:

HIGH JACK

THIS

FAGS

The photograph sparked outrage from the LGBT community, and the Associated Press pulled it from wires the following day after pressure from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).

Both the Associated Press and the United States Navy have apologized for the incident. AP spokesman Jack Stokes described publishing the photograph as a "journalistic error," saying that the "fag bomb" picture "never should have gotten through, and nobody should have seen it." U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Stephen Pietropaoli promised that the crew had been admonished over their "spontaneous acts of penmanship" calling the slur "not up to our standards."

[edit] See also

• Faggot (epithet)
• Homophobia
• Societal attitudes towards homosexuality

[edit] References