Jeremy Walters Has A Fan

So, yesterday I wrote about Iowa Republican wngnut Jeremy Walters who had posted on his Facebook that old anti-gay-homo-hatin' chestnut that AIDS is a punishment from God for being gay [see post HERE].

Well, One Iowa, the largest LGBT group in the state, rebuked Walters, as did, believe it or not, the Iowa Republican Party. Kinda makes me love Iowa even more, with, you know farmhands and marriage equality and stuff, but I digress.

Justin Uebelhor, Director of Communications for One Iowa, sent me an email, telling me about another GOP candidate for office in Iowa, who has come to Jeremy Walters' defense.

Republican state Senate hopeful Dave Leach says the Iowa GOP was wrong to denounce Walters for his bigoted, misinformed, homophobic statements. Leach announced that, while Walters statement was “theologically clumsy, it was close enough to Biblical truth to not merit a censure from the Republican Party.”

Oh yes he did.

He actually said:

Everyone knows sodomites suffer [HIV/AIDS] far more than the rest of the population, and that sodomy’s practices, which are so embarrassingly unsanitary that you dare not detail them in one of your articles, would inevitably create such a disease if it did not already exist. It seems “inappropriate,” to use Strawn’s word, to apologize for saying what the Bible says, with which everyone agrees. It is “inappropriate” for anyone to ask such a thing. I am sorry that Jeremy gave up his ground, although at least he stood it for awhile, which is more than most will do.

Sickening, I know. But what can one expect from a man who has a close relationship with Scott Roeder, the man convicted of murdering Kansas abortion provider George Tiller; what can one expect from a man like Dave Leach, who publishes a newsletter called “Prayer & Action News,” which advocates the doctrine of justifiable homicide in the case of abortion doctors.

Leach drafted a legal brief on Roeder’s behalf arguing the "necessity" defense, helped to organize a fundraiser for Roeder's legal fees, and was a regular attendee at Roeder's murder trial. In fact, Dave Leach testified as a character witness for Scott Roeder; a character witness for a murderer.

And now he's mad that Jeremy Walters is in trouble with the party.

Iowa, I still love you for being a pro-marriage equality state, but I hope you'll do the right thing come election day and tell Dave Leach and Jeremy Walters where they can take their hate speech, homophobia, lies, and justification for murder, and shove them.