Christian School Board Candidate Targets High School Student He Thinks Is Transgender in New Campaign Ad

Warns ‘Liberal Activists’ Want ‘Broadening of Definitions for Identity, Homosexual Marriage Equality, and Gay Rights’

A candidate for the Campbell County, Virginia school board who cites Christian “faith” in his campaign slogan is out with a lengthy campaign ad in which his singles out and targets a current high school student in the county he thinks is transgender. The student does not identify as transgender. He closes his video by saying, “Remember, we are one nation under God.”

John Kinchen, who by day is an associate dean at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, as Raw Story reports, posted to Facebook a video (above) claiming the most important issue for the school board to focus on is “the transgender thing.” 

“When it comes to the transgender thing, most people not only don’t understand it,” Kinchen told The News & Advance, “they’re not supportive of this position and trying to accommodate a minority, to give special privileges and special rights to people.”

To prove how important he thinks tamping down and reining in young LGBT students and their civil rights should be to the school board, Kinchen obtained a copy of a local Campbell County high school year book. After holding it up as an example of tolerance and acceptance – which he does not support – Kinchen tells viewers about one student, profiled in the yearbook, who “was highlighted for staying true to himself,” Kinchen says, as if that’s immoral.

“This means wearing makeup and dressing in feminine clothing,” Kinchen explains.

“Acceptance has become a code word for what is sought by liberal activists,” Kinchen continues, chastising the school’s leaders for not giving “more guidance to this publication.”

He says liberals use methods like “persuasion, then acceptance,” and then “approval, where leaders and influencers condone the behavior and the way of thinking.”

Kinchen says that the inclusion of the student’s story in the yearbook means the school has “tacitly condoned this way of thinking and this lifestyle.”

“Today it is seeking approval,” he says of the idea that LGBT people should be supported and treated just like anyone else. “Tomorrow it is transgender education,” Kinchen warns. It’s unclear what “transgender education” is.

In the video, Kinchen warns that “liberal activists are also seeking for greater visibility and a broadening of definitions for identity, homosexual marriage equality, and gay rights.”

And while Kinchen does not mention the student by name, it’s not hard to figure out who he is.

Mikel Jenkins, the student Kinchen targeted, spoke with WSET-TV.

“I like to wear makeup, I identify myself as a male,” Jenkins, a sophomore, says. “I’m glad it was me, because I’m accepting of myself and I’m strong.”

WSET reporter Valencia E. Jones‏ says on Twitter Jenkins “says he was singled out & inaccurately labeled as transgender instead of gay in video.”

Kinchen is by profession an educator, and yet he is openly stating acceptance of LGBT people is wrong. He should know that studies show this belief is so damaging that children who grow up in conservative areas where these beliefs are prevalent are more likely to attempt suicide than children who grow up in more liberal areas. 

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Hat tip: Raw Story

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