Dave Agema is back in the national spotlight, and he hasn’t learned a thing. The Michigan National Committeeman who gets to work on the GOP national platform earlier this year was condemned by the left and some on the right after he posted to Facebook a link to a page that calls gay people “filthy.â€
That page, filled with decades-old lies, was merely fuel for Agema’s deep-burning anti-gay fire.
The page claims that 43 percent of gay people “admit to 500 or more partners in a lifetime,” “78% of homosexuals are affected by STDs,” and “50% of suicides can be attributed to homosexuals,” among other falsehoods.
Now, Agema is explaining the reasoning for his anti-gay lies.
One local Michigan paper reported Agema was a pilot for American Airlines for 27 years.
He said American Airlines workers would say a person with AIDS was their lover so that person could get medical benefits.
“Folks, they (gay people) want free medical because they’re dying (when they’re) between 30 and 44 years old,” the paper quotes Agema saying last week.
“To me, it’s a moral issue. It’s a Biblical issue. Traditional marriage is where it should be and it’s in our platform. Those in our party who oppose traditional marriage are wrong.”
“I stand for traditional marriage, no homosexual ones,” Agema said at a Republican Party Holiday Reception on Thursday. “The family unit is the basic unit in society. When you tear the family apart, you tear the country apart.”
Emily Dievendorf, the Managing Director of Equality Michigan responded to Agema, calling him “venomous,” and attacking his “unconscionable … lies” as a “pathetic attempt to deny fundamental rights to families in Michigan.”
“Gay parents seeking healthcare for their children should never have to hear such reprehensible false allegations hurled at them, much less by someone claiming membership in a Party that prides itself on a family values platform. Parents of LGBT children should not have to endure lies about their children by an antiquated politician trying to score cheap political points. The HIV crisis should not be used to scare and divide Michiganders when our only route to overcoming the crisis is to eliminate the stigma surrounding HIV by having more frequent and accurate conversations about public health.”
Last week, Agema posted yet another inflammatory claim to Facebook. “Lie after lie, incompetence and a socialist agenda.” Obama “needs to be impeached.”