Gay MSNBC Anchor Challenges Homophobic GOP Candidate on Air
advocate.comA conservative preacher and pundit running for a U.S. House seat in Virginia who claims that homosexuality is a treatable disorder is being called out for his lack of compassion.Republican Leon Benjamin, Sr.
is running to replace Democratic Rep. Donald McEachin, who passed away just weeks after winning reelection last November.The district covers a large area from Richmond south to the border with North Carolina.Benjamin runs an organization called Escape Hall that promotes helping people “escape” from “homosexual and lesbian living.”He has falsely and dangerously claimed that LGBTQ people could be “healed” if they change their identities and has compared his ministry to helping adulterers, thieves, and murderers.
MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart, who hosts The Sunday Show and is gay, challenged Benjamin during an appearance on his program last weekend.In 2011 Facebook, Benjamin made a post on Facebook in which he compared members of the LGBTQ+ community to people who are “sick, disease[d]” and who have bipolar disorder and are addicted to drugs and alcohol. “How is that being a unifier for the 4th Congressional District of Virginia, that most likely has LGBTQ people in that district?” Capehart asked.“I think you’re looking at it in a different way,” Benjamin responded.He continued, almost rambling, “I think the LGBTQ are all facing high gas prices.
I don’t 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.
