Republican Delegate John Mandt, in West Virginia, resigned just before the election after he posted a homophobic rant on Facebook. Still, he was reelected by his district. Now he's back with even more outdated attacks on LGBTQI people, the Associated Press reported Sunday.
The state is working to pass the Fairness Act, a traditional non-discrimination law that would prevent anyone from being fired for their sexual orientation or gender identity.
"Oftentimes evil cloaks itself in pleasant-sounding terms, and that is exactly what the Fairness Act does," Mandt posted on a now-deleted Facebook comment. "There is nothing fair about it."
He went on to say that the Fairness Act "falsely claims to be a civil rights bill about fairness in employment and housing" and "forces people of faith into a position where they must choose between faith or unjust government persecution."
While Mandt agreed that "every person deserves to be treated with dignity," he justified his opposition to the bill by saying "not all behavior is dignified." He clarified when he said undignified behavior he meant what he called "gender-confused males."
The legislation, he said, "ignores biology, it favors gender-confused males and it places our state's women and girls in harm's way, especially in intimate spaces previously reserved for females."
In October, Mandt used an anti-gay slur in a Facebook group that was screen-captured and posted online. He's been known to deliver a series of discriminatory remarks about LGBTQI and Muslims.
