On the woke scale, this is full level wokeness.
Nikki Joly, a transgender man, is a LGBT rights activist from Jackson, Michigan who was given an awarded "citizen of the year" last year for his efforts to help open the city's first gay community center and organized the first gay festival.
Sadly, Joly's home was burned to the ground in 2017, killing five of his pets.
The FBI decided to investigate the incident as a possible hate crime.
What makes this news story so puzzling is the identity of the person who is now the leading suspect: Nikki Joly himself. When questions by FBI agents who wondered if he could be the arsonist, he wouldn't deny committing the crime.
It's unclear why 54-year-old Joly would burn down her... I mean his own house.
However, the police investigator's report has a theory.
Two people who worked with Joly at St. Johns United Church of Christ, where the Jackson Pride Center was located, said he had been frustrated the controversy over gay rights had died down with the passage of the nondiscrimination law, according to the report.
The church officials, Barbara Shelton and Bobby James, when asked by police about a possible motive for the fire, said Joly was disappointed the Jackson Pride Parade and Festival, held five days before the blaze, hadn’t received more attention or protests.
Wow. If true, this news story is strikingly similar to what's happening right now with Empire TV actor Jussie Smollett, who alledgely staged a recent fake hate crime hoax of his own.
Whether you think Joly is guilty or not is up to you, but one thing is clear: people who stage hate crime hoaxes aren't doing their causes any favors. People like stage fake hate crimes are only making it harder for future victims of real attacks to drum up the sympathy that they probably deserve.
As gay rights supporters try to reconcile Joly the crusader with Joly the alleged arsonist, they worry the arrest could be used to reverse all the good he has done.
Stella Shananaquet, whose son is gay, said leaders of social movements need to be beyond reproach because any perceived missteps could be used against their cause.
“All that good work is tainted. We know one bad mark outshines a hundred good ones,” Shananaquet said. “I’m infuriated someone could tear down the community that way.”
While this news story is still ongoing, it certainly doesn't look good for Joly and her... I mean, his defense attorney. But if Occam's Razor reveals itself to be at play in this news story, you can likely add this incident as just one more news story on the long list of fake hate crimes that have been reported over the past few years.