{"id":35879,"date":"2023-01-18T15:33:01","date_gmt":"2023-01-18T16:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/?p=35879"},"modified":"2023-01-18T17:35:23","modified_gmt":"2023-01-18T17:35:23","slug":"this-republican-compared-lgbtq-people-to-drug-addicts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/2023\/01\/18\/this-republican-compared-lgbtq-people-to-drug-addicts\/","title":{"rendered":"This Republican Compared LGBTQ People to Drug Addicts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Leon Benjamin, Sr. \u2013 Photo: Facebook.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Republican candidate for Congress found himself being confronted over a more than decade-old Facebook post in which he compared members of the LGBTQ community to people who are \u201csick, disease[d],\u201d suffer from bipolar disorder, or are addicted to drugs.<\/p>\n

Leon Benjamin, the Republican Party\u2019s nominee for Virginia\u2019s 4th Congressional District, appeared on MSNBC\u2019s The Sunday Show <\/em>last weekend, during which he was confronted by host Jonathan Capehart, a gay man, over the post.<\/p>\n

In the post, which was posted in January 2011, Benjamin, a senior pastor at New Life Harvest Church, encouraged people to bring those in need of salvation to an event at his church. <\/p>\n

\u201cBring you (sic) sick, disease, gay, homosexual, lesbian, transvestite, bipolar, alcoholic, drug addiction friends and love (sic) ones!!!!!!!!!!\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

But when he appeared on the January 15 episode of The Sunday Show<\/em>, Capehart challenged Benjamin\u2019s assertion that he would be a less divisive figure who could bring people together. Citing the 2011 post, Capehart asked: \u201cHow is that being a unifier for the 4th Congressional District of Virginia, that most likely has LGBTQ people in that district?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you\u2019re looking at it in a different way,\u201d Benjamin responded. \u201cI think the LGBTQ are all facing high gas prices. I don\u2019t think we should marginalize one group of people and use it for political gain. I think that the LGBTQ and the homosexuals are dealing with high gas prices, inflation, the high crime, the education. I think all of us are dealing with issues, and we shouldn\u2019t marginalize them, and I think my compassion really shows strong enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Capehart replied: \u201cAs an out, gay, married man, I have a hard time finding compassion in that 2011 Facebook post.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benjamin is slated faces Democratic State Sen. Jennifer McClellan (D-Richmond), an LGBTQ ally, in a special election scheduled for Feb. 21.<\/p>\n

Benjamin, who ran for the 4th District seat twice before, losing to the late Democratic Congressman Don McEachin in 2020 and 2022, has been known for pushing anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and promoting claims that the 2020 election was marred by widespread fraud.<\/p>\n

As left-wing watchdog Media Matters previously reported<\/a>, Benjamin has claimed that the COVID-19 pandemic was a \u201ccover-up\u201d by elites seeking to push through a \u201cnew world order,\u201d that global elites were implanting 5G nanotechnology into humans through COVID-19 vaccines, and that the 2020 election was stolen by China and other Communist nations.<\/p>\n

Benjamin also runs a ministry, Escape Hall, that is devoted to getting people to \u201cescape\u201d from \u201chomosexual and lesbian living,\u201d according to a 2017 Facebook post<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow that we have Transgenders, that is just another form of homosexuality or lesbianism as its roots. It\u2019s time for the Church to be the place of deliverance for any who would desire a change and to enter into the Kingdom of God: fornication, adultery, idolatry and witchcraft are genderless- let\u2019s go after the root and manifest the Sons of God! Amen!\u201d he wrote in the post.<\/p>\n

\n
\"How<\/a><\/div>\n
Trending<\/span><\/p>\n
How Kyle Edward Ball Tapped into Nightmares for \u2018Skinamarink\u2019<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In an appearance on a right-wing talk show<\/a> on Brighteon, a right-wing alternative to YouTube, Benjamin compared \u201chealing\u201d LGBTQ people by helping them to change their sexual orientation or gender identity to the work he does to \u201csave\u201d adulterers, thieves, murderers and other sinners. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019m dealing with someone in that lifestyle, it\u2019s just like adultery,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I see a person who\u2019s adulterous, I got to see them as somebody that God wants to save. When I see a thief or murderer like Apostle Paul was a murderer, God saw him as an apostle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benjamin gave a speech in New York as part of the ReAwaken America Tour, a far-right protest movement that promotes various anti-government and anti-liberal conspiracy theories, including about the origins of COVID-19, the alleged \u201ctheft\u201d of the 2020 election, and the need for a Christian nationalist movement in the United States. Benjamin devoted part of his speech at the tour promoting the idea that LGBTQ people can change their identities by embracing God. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to get delivered. You\u2019re going to get healed,\u201d Benjamin says in video obtained and archived by Media Matters<\/a>. \u201cI don\u2019t care if it\u2019s homosexuality, fornication, adultery, lesbianism. God says he\u2019s going to touch you today. You going get this out of your spirit. You\u2019re going get it out of your life. And God\u2019s going to renew your mind. And you\u2019re going to be transformed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe devil lied to you and I,\u201d Benjamin says later in the video. \u201cHe told you that you can change your sex, but he is a liar! \u2026 You got to come out of homosexuality! You got to come out of adultery! You got to come out of fornication! \u2026 I don\u2019t care how long you\u2019ve been a homosexual. I don\u2019t care how long you\u2019ve been a lesbian. The weight of the Holy Ghost is more powerful than any demon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"Florida<\/a><\/div>\n
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Florida Wants to Expand \u201cDon\u2019t Say Gay\u201d Law<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Benjamin was endorsed<\/a> during his 2022 run for the seat by Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who has targeted the transgender community in the name of \u201cparental rights,\u201d offering up policies that would out transgender students to their parents<\/a>, bar transgender students from facilities matching their gender identity, and allow students who oppose LGBTQ rights based on religious or moral beliefs to misgender and harass transgender students in the name of \u201cfree speech.\u201d Students at schools throughout the commonwealth hosted \u201cwalkouts<\/a>\u201d at the beginning of the school year, in protest of the proposed policies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leon Benjamin, Sr. \u2013 Photo: Facebook. A Republican candidate for Congress found himself being confronted<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35879"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35879"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35889,"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35879\/revisions\/35889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}