Jury finds that lesbian couple burned down own house in fake hate crime

From Thomas Lifson at The American Thinker Blog:

For the third time this week, we have a report of a fabulist being busted for fabricating an incident.  How many other phony reports have been made is an open question, because usually there is not a dash cam or a jury trial to provide a definitive conclusion of hate fraud.

A federal jury in a lawsuit has concluded a Monroe County lesbian couple's claim their house was torched in an act of hate was a hoax.

A jury in U.S. District Court on Monday returned a verdict in favor of American National Property and Casualty Company in a lawsuit over the fire claim of Carol Ann Stutte and Laura Jean Stutte.

In the verdict, the jury specifically concluded the insurer had proved by what's known as a preponderance of the evidence standard that the Stuttes torched their house in Vonore, Tenn., and covered it up by spray-painting the word "queers" on a detached garage and labeling the fire a hate crime by their neighbor.

What drives people to fabricate hate crimes against themselves? Absent deep research, I have to speculate that the enshrining of victimhood as the most honored and powerful role in society has a lot to do with it. When society rewards the stance of being a victim so richly, some people will be driven to assume that posture even when it requires fraud.

The new class of special rights have been created by liberalism -- Victims.