NEW YORK (NY)
Gay City News
February 6, 2019 l
By Matt Tracy
By his own admission, Aaron Bianco was a “nobody” until he was discovered by the alt-right.
An out gay former pastoral associate at St. John’s the Evangelist Catholic Church in San Diego, Bianco was long treated with respect in the workplace and largely accepted by parishioners and church leaders alike.
But everything went downhill in June of 2017 when the parish’s priest left, forcing Bianco to assume more responsibilities and play a more visible role in the absence of a permanent replacement pastor.
The alt-right news sites LifeSite News and Church Militant started attacking him, first when Bianco’s role expanded and again in August of last year when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court named at least 300 Catholic priests in an investigation of child sex abuse.
The news articles written about him were followed by a barrage of horrifying events: Bianco started receiving death threats laced with homophobic slurs, found his car’s tires entirely punctured, and saw someone creepily stalking him outside of his house. He arrived at the church one day to find the doors had been lit on fire and “NO FAGS” spray-painted on a wall.
Bianco recalled the time he had to dodge a punch from a man who walked up to him following Mass and demanded to know if he were married. In a fit of rage, the man had to be restrained by others nearby, and a police investigation followed, according to Bianco.
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