Alabama Republican Refuses to Apologize for Ranting About 'Freaking Queers'

By Rafi Schwartz  |  June 18, 2019 | 1:45pm
White House

A local Republican official in Alabama has some thoughts he’d like to share this Pride month, which he recently posted on the Mobile County Republican Party’s Facebook page: “Freaking queers have gotten too much sympathy.”

Phil Benson, the Republican treasurer for Mobile County, was responding to a National Review article about homophobic Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips, who has been sued for discrimination (again)—this time after he refused to create a gender affirmation cake for a client. In a comment on the page, Benson said “this poor guy needs to move to a place he is wanted” and added the client is “a real abomination.”

Although the comment has since been deleted from the party’s Facebook page—in a follow-up comment, an administrator wrote that “a comment has been removed” for not using “appropriate language”—Benson isn’t backing down.

“Gay people are offensive to me. Do you understand that?” he whined to local NBC affiliate WPMI on Monday, after reporter Andrea Ramey said he requested she read a Bible passage before agreeing to an interview.

“All this beautiful rainbow stuff. When one of our presidents lit the White House with wonderful rainbow colors that offended me,” he continued.

Benson also made clear it’s not just the LBGTQ community that offends him.

“Do they offend me? Do I think that they have gotten too much power over you and I? Yes. I think too many sub groups have gotten too much control over me through the government,” Benson told the station.

He did not expand on just which “sub groups” he was referring to, so I leave it to you to speculate.

In a statement to WPMI, Alabama Republican Chairman Terry Lathan marginally distanced himself from Benson’s comments, calling them “unnecessary” and “divisive” while insisting they “represent his own personal opinion.”

I reached out to Mobile County’s three county commissioners for their reactions to Benson’s remarks and will update this story if they respond.

 
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