HGTV OKs New Reality Show Starring Anti-Gay Twins

Jason St. Amand READ TIME: 4 MIN.

Officials from Home & Garden Television announced last month that they approved a new reality show that will star twin brothers, one of whom is vehemently anti-gay, Right Wing Watch reports.

David and Jason Benham will "leverage their good-natured sibling rivalry to help families find a fixer-upper and transform it into the dream home they never thought they could afford" on HGTV's new "Flip it Forward," a press release for the show reads.

RWW notes that at least one of the brothers is a "right-wing activist in the mold of his father, Flip Benham, who has headed the abortion-clinic protest group Operation Save America ever since it split from the militant anti-choice group Operation Rescue."

David Benham, led a prayer rally outside the Democratic Nation Convention in Charlotte, N.C., in 2012 and told conservative radio host Janet Mefferd that he needed to stop "homosexuality and its agenda that is attacking that nation," adding, "Demonic ideologies take our universities and our public school systems."

He told Mefferd that his twin brother Jason joined helped him organize the DNC prayer protest.

He said:

We don't realize that, okay, if 87 percent of Americans are Christians and yet we have abortion on demand; we have no-fault divorce; we have pornography and perversion; we have a homosexuality and its agenda that is attacking the nation; we have adultery; we have all of the things; we even have allowed demonic ideologies to take our universities and our public school systems while the church sits silent and just builds big churches. We are so complacent, we are so apathetic and we are very hypocritical in the church, that's why the Bible says judgment begins in the house of God. So when we prayed at 714 we asked God and our city to forgive us for allowing these things in the house of God.

RWW reports David Benham also said he worked to pass North Carolina's ban on same-sex marriage, Amendment One.

In North Carolina, you know, we just fought for Amendment One, which was a constitutional amendment that simply said, this is exactly what the amendment said is the only legal marriage in North Carolina was between a man and a woman. We received-it was such a battle in North Carolina, it blew me away. I already knew in my heart as most all of us Christians in America know that we are in a very desperate spiritual situation and moral situation in our country, but it really hit home during Amendment One, so much so that when Amendment One passed I realized the only three counties in North Carolina that actually voted against the amendment were Charlotte, Raleigh and Asheville, our three cities. So we had all the rural areas and all the suburban areas but we lost all the cities. So I felt like, okay, it's time that we have a citywide church service of repentance and that's the reason that we decided to do it right in the heart of Charlotte the night before the DNC.

In a 2012 blog post on Operation Save America's website, David Benham compared the fight against gay marriage to those who opposed Nazi German:

I read an excellent article this morning by a former NFL player, Ken Hutcherson, on the political correctness of many evangelical organizations in America today. I share his same sentiment when it comes to Christian organizations appeasing evil instead of resisting it. In a desperate attempt to appear attractive and not "offensive", an overwhelming number of Christian organizations in America have adopted a politically correct policy of appeasement in the face of evil instead of standing at the mid-point of biblical tension on the social issues of our day.

He later wrote in the Christian Post that gay marriage "erodes the moral fabric of our society" and "threaten[s] future generations."

"If we are going to continue as a nation we must preserve and protect the most sacred institutions of society, specifically marriage & family," he added.

In 2009, David Benham protested an LGBT event in Charlotte, N.C., and serves on the board of the Coalition of Conscience, a group headed by the ultra-conservative and anti-gay activist Michael Brown.

David Benham's attitudes towards the LGBT community, Muslims and abortion probably come from his father, Flip Benham, who has taken issue with the interfaith Sandy Hook memorial, protested in front of mosques while yelling "Jesus hates Muslims" and said Democrats were the cause of the Aurora shooting, since leading Operation Save America.

Flip Benham also rallied against LGBT prides and interrupted church services during a sermon by Gene Robinson, an openly gay bishop.

According to David Benham's Twitter, he's a "Husband to Lori, Father of 5, Serial Entrepreneur, Crossfitter, Evil Twin, Jesus Guy. HGTV host."

You can listen to David Benham's anti-gay comments on Mefferd's radio show over at Right Wing Watch's SoundCloud page.


by Jason St. Amand , National News Editor

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