Bishop E.W. Jackson, the GOP nominee
for lieutenant governor of Virginia, on Tuesday claimed that the
media has taken his anti-gay comments out of context.
Appearing on Newsmax TV, Jackson said
that he has only condemned the actions of the “gay rights movement,
so-called, homosexual activists.”
“Look, I respect every human being,”
Jackson said on the program. “I don't believe that there's any
second-class citizens in Virginia. I don't treat anybody any
differently because of their sexual orientation. But I do think that
the rabid, radical homosexual activist movement is really trying to
fundamentally change our culture and redefine marriage and do a
number of things that I just think are not good at all.”
According
to RightWingWatch.org, a project of People for the American Way,
Jackson has previously said that the gay community is composed of
“perverse,” “degenerate” and “very sick people” and
suggested that gay men and lesbians abuse children in an effort to
make them gay.
(Related: Virginia
GOP Lt. Gov. nominee E.W. Jackson calls homosexuality “wrong.”)