GOP Candidate Saying it's 'Totally Just' to Kill Gay People Resurfaces
Republican candidate running for a seat in Oklahoma's state House once said it is "totally just" to kill gay people in comments that have resurfaced amid his campaign.Scott Esk is running to represent Oklahoma's 87th House District, which includes parts of Oklahoma City.
He is set to face another Republican Gloria Banister in a Tuesday runoff, but his campaign has faced scrutiny in recent days over the resurfaced comments, which began nearly a decade earlier.
The comments resurfaced last year in a Facebook comment thread as many in the LGBTQ community have warned about a rise in homophobic rhetoric in politics.In 2013, when Esk was running in a different race, the candidate commented on an article about the Pope asking "who I am to judge?" about gay people.
According to MSNBC, Esk responded with Bible verses condemning homosexuality, prompting another user to ask if he believes "we should execute homosexuals (presumably by stoning)?""I think we would be totally in the right to do it," he said, according to MSNBC. "That goes against some parts of libertarianism, I realize, and I'm largely libertarian, but ignoring as a nation things that are worthy of death is very remiss."Local news outlet TheMooreDaily.com also pressed him on the remarks, to which he responded that it was "totally just" to kill gay people in the Bible's Old Testament."What I will tell you right now is that was done in the Old Testament under a law that came directly from God.
