Reverend Flip Benham, the father of would-be reality stars David Benham and Jason Benham, and a group Christians confronted several transgender women as they attempted to use the women's restrooms during a debate over a non-discrimination ordinance in North Carolina this week.
Hundreds of supporters and opponents of a proposal to expand Charlotte's non-discrimination ordinance packed the City Council meeting on Tuesday night. The City Council eventually voted down the measure, which would have added protections based on sexual orientation, and would have punished businesses that failed to comply.
Outside the council meeting, passions flared in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center when a group of Christian protesters spotted several transgender women attempting to use the female bathrooms.
According to Qnotes, Benham called one 17-year-old transgender girl a "pervert" and a "punk." Qnotes reported that the teen had also called Benham an "asshole."
In a telephone interview on Tuesday, Benham confirmed to Raw Story that a confrontation had occurred.
"Yeah, yeah, what happened last night was unbelievable," Benham said. "Right in our bathrooms with our kids in the bathroom!"
The conservative pastor recalled that one of the transgender women had been "dressed in drag."
"This guy, this big white guy, dressed in drag -- and our kids were in the bathroom!" he exclaimed. "Right in the ladies bathroom... He went in! We got the police, we got the guard, they came up and the lady [officer] told [the transgender women], 'You got to get out of there.' And he said, 'Well, I'm not done yet.'"
"And so he waits 2 minutes and 25 seconds until he gets done, and then he walks out. It was the most unbelievable thing -- I couldn't even imagine anything like this happening!"
Benham said that a mother of one of the children told the transgender women that she needed to "get out of this place."
"He said, 'What do you want me to do, go pee on a tree?'" the reverend said. "And it wasn't only him. Then, there was another young boy, 17 years old, that now believes he's a woman, and he went in that restroom about a half an hour later. The ladies restroom!"
"This guy who spoke was in the bathroom with our kids -- girls, our girls! A 12 year old, an 11 year old. And that's when mama bear went in," the street preacher asserted. "And then when it happened again with a 17-year-old transvestite dressed in drag, they did nothing!"
Benham said that "Almighty God" was responsible for convincing the council to vote against the ordinance. He noted that even Democratic Council Member Claire Green Fallon had sided with opponents.
"Clair Green Fallon, who is an absolute pro-abort, pro-homosexual, hates everything about God, she knew that she is coming up for an election, and that lady voted -- she voted no," Benham said, laughing. "I was stunned."
"We didn't get a big bunch, but we got a small -- maybe a thousand people -- that came out, turned up, and, boy, the people that spoke in their little two minute speeches, it's incredible how they did."
Benham said that winning the vote reminded him that the "whole battle is about redefining the truth."
"And the truth is homosexuality is a sin, and it destroys those who practice it and nations that approve of it. It's always been that way. When people forsake God, they get turned over to lust that's insatiable, men lust after men," he opined.
"We are just not going to allow this on our watch while our children are in the bathrooms. I mean, you just open the door for perverts to do what they want to do. And now our parks, our city halls are not even safe for our kids to use the restroom."
Benham argued that Christians wanted to "save" LGBT people, but he said that the "homosexual community" literally wanted to "kill" opponents.
"They want us to accept them and everything that they want and demand or they're going to kill us," he said. "We want their very best, they want the very worst for us."
"You know I'd be greatly concerned if my daughters were in the bathroom and I saw a man dressed in drag," Benham declared. "I'd be more than concerned, I'd drag that queen right out of that bathroom. I mean, that would be the responsibility of the father. And then I'd go to jail for that."
Benham admitted that no physical harm had come to the children during Monday night bathroom encounter, but he said that was not the point.
"How do the kids feel in a bathroom when a man comes into the bathroom and starts using the bathroom, and he's not using it like a woman? They realize he's dressed like a woman, but he's not a woman!" he shouted. "What is that worth? How do you measure that? I don't know, I'm sure what that guy did has really traumatized the kids. Don't you think?"
Benham said that his group had recorded the entire encounter, and that his son, David, was considering how to publish it. Benham suggested the video could be turned over to Sean Hannity at Fox News.
"They want your death, they want your worst. They want you out of the way forever, and they want you hurt forever," Benham said of LGBT activists, adding that God could "rescue them from this thing that has made them such bondage, this sexual perversion and slavery."
Watch the video below of Flip Benham and others speaking to the Charlotte City Council.
