Gordon Klingenschmitt may be the most virulently anti-gay candidate to win a state legislative seat this election cycle, but Gary Glenn of Michigan comes in a close second. Glenn, the author of his state’s constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, may not send out warnings about how gay people want to behead Christians or how Democrats are mandating child sexual abuse as Klingenschmitt does, but he has his own special brand of anti-gay politics.
Glenn, a former head of the American Family Association’s Michigan chapter, wants to recriminalize homosexuality, which he says is “a proven threat to public health and safety,” and even filed an unsuccessful lawsuit challenging the 2009 Hate Crimes Prevention Act, falsely alleging that the law would “criminalize the Bible and use the threat of federal prosecutions and long jail sentences to silence Christians.”
Glenn has denounced efforts to curb anti-LGBT bullying in schools as a “Trojan Horse” plot by “homosexual activists” who want to “segregate students” and suggested that schools ban clubs like the Gay-Straight Alliance for “promoting behavior that [is] self-destructive and harmful to young people.” Instead, Glenn thinks that if schools “truly cared about young people who are ensnared by deviant behavior, they would tell them the truth that homosexuality is harmful and to be avoided.”
In previous election cycles, Glenn has attempted to defeat gay Michigan candidates. In a robocall against one gay candidate, he used the word “homosexual” no less than ten times.
He has also urged businesses to refuse to hire “individuals who engage in homosexual behavior given all of its severe medical consequences,” telling employers that “it’s not really bright to engage in behavior that puts you at dramatically higher risk of mental illness and substance abuse and AIDS and cancer and hepatitis, and according to various sources, premature death.”
Glenn even demanded that governors ignore court rulings that strike down same-sex marriage bans.
