Oh dear Lord. Michigan Republican leader Dave Agema said gay people “want free medical [care] because they’re dying.”
Agema, a former state representative, represents Michigan as a member of the Republican National Committee. “They want free medical because they're dying between 30 and 44 years old," Agema told a group of Republicans late last week in remarks that surfaced today. In voicing his opposition to same-sex relationships, Agema claimed some American Airlines employees would tell the company someone with AIDS was their lover in order to get them medical benefits.
Agema also called homosexuality a “filthy lifestyle” on Facebook earlier this year.
In a speech at the Berrien County Republican Party’s annual holiday reception, former state Rep. Dave Agema said he had seen gay co-workers at American Airlines claim someone with AIDS was their spouse so that person could receive medical benefits.
[Agema] has taken flak nationally for his stance against gay marriage, but he said he doesn't mind because while working at American Airlines, he saw firsthand what happens when benefits are extended to gay people.
He said American Airlines workers would say a person with AIDS was their lover so that person could get medical benefits.
"Folks, they (gay people) want free medical because they're dying (when they're) between 30 and 44 years old," he said. "To me, it's a moral issue. It's a Biblical issue. Traditional marriage is where it should be and it's in our platform. Those in our party who oppose traditional marriage are wrong."
Agema made the comments during a speech in which he urged Republicans to reach out to both Independents and Tea Partiers.
Agema has taken heat for his comments about gays before. In April, he shared an article on his Facebook page that accused gays of living a “filthy lifestyle,” and urged Christians to help them “get out of it.”
“As a matter of fact when Jesus caught a woman in the act of adultery when they brought her to him he said, ‘I don’t condemn you but go and sin no more.’ That ought to be the church’s goal here,” Agema said on a radio show run by the Family Research Council. “We ought to be saying to these people, ‘Hey, we don’t agree with your lifestyle and we’ll help you get out of it, but we want you to know the facts of what’s going to happen to you if you stay in this lifestyle.”
He said children were being conditioned to accept homosexuality in schools. “The next thing that will occur is your kids will come home and say, ‘I think this is a good thing and I think I want to be one,’” he said in April.
Agema is serving his first term on the RNC after ousting longtime member Saul Anuzis.
