A beloved voice actor was just murdered for being gay. At least, that’s the narrative that viral post after viral post across social media is pushing. There’s just one problem: As tragic as it is, this alleged murder likely had nothing to do with homosexuality at all. 

This past Sunday, Jonathan Joss of King of the Hill fame was shot and killed outside of his home in Southside San Antonio. Initial media reports suggested that this occurred after a dispute with a neighbor, who was arrested in connection with the killing. But Joss’s surviving spouse, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, took to Facebook to claim that the man who killed him approached them “yelling violent homophobic slurs.” Kern de Gonzales ultimately concludes that this was an explicit anti-gay hate crime and that Joss was “murdered by someone who could not stand the sight of two men loving each other.”

Recommended Stories

• Democrats' commitment to identity politics is a ticket to oblivion
• Drones — the new war machines
• Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff shows his disdain for military appreciation

Left-leaning media outlets quickly seized on this narrative and ran with it. For example, LGBTQNation.com boldly declared in a headline, “Gay ‘King of the Hill’ actor allegedly gunned down by homophobic neighbor.”

Viral tweets shared the story and made claims such as, “This is why we need Pride Month.” Meanwhile, on TikTok, users presenting the spouse’s allegations as fact received millions of views and inspired thousands of horrified comments. 

But, while Joss’s death is still a tremendous loss, the notion that his killing was motivated by anti-gay animus appears baseless. The San Antonio Police Department clarified this in a statement: “SAPD Homicide is currently investigating the murder of Mr. Jonathan Joss. Despite online claims of this being a hate crime, currently the investigation has found no evidence to indicate that Mr. Joss’s murder was related to his sexual orientation.”

“SAPD investigators handle these allegations very seriously and have thoroughly reviewed all available information,” the police added. “Should any new evidence come to light, the suspect will be charged accordingly.”

Notably, as of this writing, media outlets such as LGBTQNation have not updated their stories with this information or published new ones.

While anything is possible, there’s no real reason to believe that SAPD would seek to cover up a hate crime if it did indeed happen as Joss’s husband claims. Sure, it’s Texas, but San Antonio is a gay-friendly metro area, and the SAPD is an LGBT-friendly police force. It even has an official “LGBTQ+ liaison.”

Meanwhile, neighbors who witnessed the aftermath of the attack have not corroborated the suggestion that it was an anti-gay hate crime. They have, however, undercut Kern de Gonzales’s reliability as a narrator. In the same Facebook post alleging the hate crime, he also claimed that Joss’s home had been burned down in a targeted attack. But neighbors and even Joss himself said it was a grilling accident that Joss caused. So, we already know that Kern de Gonzales is making untrue claims of victimhood in this very post. Why would we assume his claims about the alleged murder are true, despite a police investigation finding no evidence? 

What’s more, neighbors paint a picture of Joss as a very troubled man. 

“He would just walk up and down the street … he would just like scream,” one told MySanAntonio.com. “He was just very loud, very loud. But we knew how he was, so we wouldn’t disturb him. Even if he looked at us, talked mess to us, we just ignored him because we knew that’s how he was.”

MySanAntonio further reports that, “According to the San Antonio Police Department, officers have responded to Joss’ address on Dorsey Drive over 40 times since January 2024, with calls connected to mental health disturbances, disturbance with neighbors, general disturbances, welfare checks, and the fire reported in January.”

Hence, why a neighbor concluded, “I’m so sad it had to come to this. We all knew it was going to end up like this because of his antics. It’s sad cause this could have been prevented if he had gotten the help he needed.”

So, what’s more likely: that Joss died in some sort of altercation with a neighbor, or that a brutal anti-gay murder occurred in a gay-friendly urban enclave and that the gay-friendly police department is covering it up? People with common sense know the answer. 

After all, hate crime hoaxes are more common than you might think. As the Wall Street Journal reports, professor Wilfred Reilly “compiled a database of 346 hate-crime allegations and determined that less than a third were genuine.” 

“The actual number of hate crime hoaxes is indisputably large,” Reilly said. “We are not speaking here of just a few bad apples.”

MAJORITY OF AMERICANS SUSPICIOUS OF CORPORATE SUPPORT FOR PRIDE MONTH

How did we get here? Well, in a culture that valorizes victimhood and treats oppression as a form of social currency, people are encouraged to play the victim even when they aren’t. Or, as some have put it, the demand for racism, homophobia, and other forms of bigotry is starting to exceed the supply. 

So, it’s not particularly surprising that mentally unwell people might twist the facts to portray themselves as identity-based victims or that commentators might echo these narratives without asking basic questions or including contrary facts. Yet it’s incredibly harmful not just to real victims of actual hate crimes, but to an entire generation that’s being taught victimhood is something to aspire to — even if it means lying to the world and lying to yourself. 

Brad Polumbo is an independent journalist and host of the Brad vs Everyone podcast.