GOP State Senator Compares LGBT Activists to Nazis, Then Fundraises Off His Attacks

‘The Head of the Nazi SS Was a Homosexual’ Claims Sen. Jason Rapert

Arkansas Republican state Senator Jason Rapert is comparing LGBT activists to Nazis, and then fundraising off his attacks. 

“The LGBT activists who behave as Nazis are trying to ruin anyone who ‘disagrees’ with them – even grandmothers,” Sen. Rapert wrote on his Facebook page on August 12, as AmericaBlog‘s John Aravosis noted. “Simply believing in the Bible is offensive to these activists. They can’t stand it if you disagree. They demand full compliance with their diminished morality. They clearly behave just like the ‘brown shirts’ and ‘SS’ troops that Nazis used to destroy Jews and anyone who disagreed with the Nazi ideology.”

The comparison of LGBT people to Nazis is beyond offensive. Hitler arrested an estimated 100,000 LGBT people, sent up to 15,000 to concentration camps, and killed untold thousands of them, according to the U.S. Holocaust Museum.

“I don’t care what THEY believe,” Rapert continued, doing his best to dehumanize gays, “but I refuse to let them intimidate those who disagree with them. Our laws should not give special protections to people who behave this way. It is a sad time in American history.”

“I believe you should be allowed to believe as your conscience dictates – but I oppose forcing anyone to comply with your belief system and especially punishing people who believe commonly held moral standards. It’s all very un-American.”

Rapert effectively is saying LGBT people must comply with his belief system, but he is not subject to the basic idea of even respecting LGBT people as people. He’s also disrespecting the laws of a sovereign state.

What, exactly, got Rapert so angry?

An opinion piece at the far right wing website The Daily Caller, by an attorney of the anti-gay hate group Alliance Defending Freedom. ADF is representing Washington state florist Barronelle Stutzman, who has finally been able to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to take her case.

Put simply, Stutzman has lost her argument – and her case – at every turn. She refused to sell flowers to a long-time customer who was marrying his fiancé. Stutzman claims creating a floral arrangement for a wedding of two people of the same sex violates her religious beliefs. The ADF for years has wrongly been insisting Stutzman may lose her home, her business and her life savings, and has been blaming LGBT people for that – while fundraising off it.

In February they told supporters they needed to raise $24 million. That was just one of the about 150 articles, press releases, and other pages on the ADF’s website that mention Stutzman.

In reality, the laws of the state of Washington, and the voters who elected the lawmakers who believe human rights laws are important in a civil society, are the ones actually responsible for the case against Stutzman. Meanwhile, Stutzman has been given several chances by Washington officials to pay a nominal fee, $1000 to $2000 to settle the case and make it disappear, yet has repeatedly refused.

In response to the hundreds of Facebook comments he received – the majority of which appear to oppose his remarks – on Tuesday afternoon Rapert again took to Facebook, this time asking for money in response to comments from people explaining to him why his beliefs are not only inaccurate, but offensive. 

“Friends, as you can see from the hate-filled posts here the past few days, radical liberals are raging against me for standing up for Barronelle Stutzman – the little 72 year old Christian florist being targeted for ruin simply for declining to participate in a gay wedding,” Rapert wrote. “If you want to protect Religious Liberty and help me keep speaking the truth in the face of lies and anti-Christian bigotry – please help me by donating today.”

Wednesday morning Sen. Rapert announced on Facebook, his campaign fundraising was going well: “We deposited $8,200 yesterday!”

But that not the end of Rapert’s attacks on “radical liberals” and LGBT people.

In the comments on his Facebook post about Stutzman, Rapert accused LGBT activists of “using tactics of those who once targeted them,” and claimed, “it is reported that the head of the Nazi SS was a homosexual.” (That would likely be a surprise to Heinrich Himmler.) 

Rapert also claims the people of Arkansas elected him “to stand against bigotry like this,” meaning to stand against ensuring business owners treat people equally.

“There is a real problem with hostility from LGBT activists that rises to the level of true intolerance and intimidation,” Rapert said,  chastising people who made comments he felt were inappropriate or “un-American.”

Rapert also misrepresented a June Rolling Stone article on LGBT activist and mega donor Tim Gill, who has spent hundreds of millions of his own money to support LGBT equality. 

Former OutServe-SLDN board member Josh Seefried, whose activism helped repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, weighed in on the Facebook post. Rapert responded with a false claim about LGBT equality activist Tim Gill.

“When the largest donor to the LGBT movement declares that they are going to target Christians and punish them as the ‘wicked’, doesn’t that sound just like the Nazis who changed the definition of Jews to be something lower than human so they could get away with killing them?” Rapert asked.

He’s referring to a June Rolling Stone article, in which Gill says: “We’re going into the hardest states in the country,” and, “We’re going to punish the wicked.”

So egregious was the response from the far and religious right that the article’s author was forced to pen a follow up, blasting the them for falsely asserting that “the wicked” refers to Christians – and noting that Gill has received death threats as a result.

Not once in my profile does Gill talk about “targeting” Christians. Not once does Gill so much as hint at singling out Christians or adherents of any other religion. Not once does the word “Christian” appear.

…

“The wicked” is anyone who stands in the way of progress on equal rights for LGBTQ people: politicians, activists, lawyers, some people of faith, and plenty more with no religious affiliation whatsoever.

On Sen. Rapert’s Facebook page, many of the comments scolded or criticized him (see screenshot below). Here’s one good example:

You actually believe Nazis committed genocide-murdering 6 million Jews-because Jews “disagreed with Nazi ideology”? Nazi ideology is: “murder Jews.” 

To suggest LGBTQ people, who simply want to be treated as equal and to be allowed public lives & the same rights & securities as everyone else, are Nazis is the height of stupidity & is truly dangerous rhetoric. Nazis do exist in our country – they marched in Charlottesville and murdered a young woman – and they exist in our White House. They must be denounced & defeated. LGBTQ people must be respected & protected under our Constitution-and because it’s the ethical and moral thing to do.

You should denounce your own statement, get educated, and rethink what makes you such a hateful person.

Meanwhile, back to the senator from Arkansas.

“All of you better wake up. God defines who is and is not wicked – not gay marriage supporters,” Rapert continued in his screed about the Rolling Stone article. “I will not be silent in the face of these threats against Christians just as I have not been silent in the face of the same people who devalue babies lives and kill them by the millions. Our country is very sick within our soul. We need God.”

Actually, Senator, you need reading comprehension and to spend some time better educating yourself. Because almost nothing you’ve written in your Facebook post was correct.

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