CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Virginia’s GOP nominee for Lt. Governor appeared Thursday on Janet Mefferd’s radio program to defend his claims that gays and lesbians are “very sick people.”
Jackson, a Chesapeake, Va., minister with a track record of vehemently anti-gay remarks and who has called LGBT people “perverse,” and pedophiles, said “homosexuality is a sexual behavior and it is a behavior that the Bible says is wrong and unacceptable.”
“To equate that with civil rights for black people or for women is so specious that it just amazes me that people buy into it, but they buy into it because it is emotionally appealing, it has no logic to it whatsoever,” said Jackson.
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Jackson told Mefferd that gays need to “know the love of God in their lives” and that it would “betray God” to reassess his anti-gay remarks, which he said were made “without venom or hatred.”
Earlier this month, Jackson was selected by state GOP delegates to be the running mate to gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli.
The nomination set off a firestorm of criticism from progressives and Democrats over Jackson’s controversial public pronouncements on LGBT issues, along with his allegations that Planned Parenthood was more lethal to blacks than the Ku Klux Klan.
Although Cuccinelli himself has thus far not weighed in, the current Governor, Republican Bob McDonnell on Tuesday stressed that Cuccinelli is not responsible for the controversial statements by Jackson.
He also called on the GOP slate to campaign with civility and to focus on “kitchen-table issues.”
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As for Jackson, McDonnell said: “He’s obviously passionate about the right to life. I’m pro-life. I believe that is the right position for Virginia.”
“I think you need to express these things with civility,” McDonnell added. “You need to try to bring people together.”
But in an interview with WHSV-TV in Harrisonburg Wednesday, State Senator Mark D. Obenshain, the Republican candidate for attorney general, distanced himself from Jackson’s controversial remarks.
Obenshain said he wanted to talk about his ideas for the economy and job creation, but when WHSV-TV host Bob Corso, asked if he supported Jackson’s comments that homosexuals are “sick” and “perverted,” Obenshain replied, “Bob, I don’t agree with that statement.”
