In a recent podcast, Christian
conservative Mat Staver claimed that the Equality Act would legalize
pedophilia.
The Equality Act, which
cleared the U.S. House in May, seeks to add protections against
discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity to
existing civil rights laws.
President Donald Trump has signaled
that he's opposed to the legislation.
(Related: LGBT
groups respond to Trump's opposition to Equality Act: “We're
Disgusted.”)
Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel,
claimed on his Faith and Freedom podcast that Jeffrey Epstein,
who is facing criminal charges for alleged child sex trafficking,
could not be prosecuted under the proposed nondiscrimination bill.
“He’s fortunately facing criminal
charges, and he should go away to jail for some time for his actions,
if in fact these are proven true,” Staver
told his audience. “And it looks like the evidence is, at least
from what’s out there publicly, overwhelming. But in his case, if
this [Equality Act] became law, how could that be criminalized? It
couldn’t.”
“Because they are promoting, under
the LGBT banner, minor-attracted individuals and having what they
call intergenerational relationships. That’s pedophilia. That’s
what they’re promoting. Oh it’s just no different than somebody
who is a homosexual or LGBT.”
“It’s the same thing. They just
have the same sexual perversion of a different nature. That’s what
they promote,” he added.
Staver has previously described
the bill as “unpatriotic and dangerous.”