If one right-wing pundit is to be believed, one of America's Founding Fathers would have absolutely no interest in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality.
Self-taught "historian" David Barton, who leads a Keep The Promise PAC backing 2016 Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz, claimed on Glenn Beck's radio show that Thomas Jefferson "came out very clearly" against the LGBT community during his presidency. The interview coincided with the re-release of The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You've Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson, Barton's controversial 2012 book which examined Jefferson's views on government, marriage and Christianity.
"He actually introduced a bill that said that laws should be those that are recognized by the Bible," Barton told Beck. "Marriage should be based on biblical recognition. So, he said marriage has got to be defined by what the Bible defines it as. That's the law that he introduced."
Jefferson, he continued, "also said that sexual relations were designed for procreation, not for entertainment. So sexual relations was designed by the Creator, throughout the law of nature, for procreation. Anything that violates that, violates the laws of nature."
Lies is now being re-released by conservative website WorldNetDaily after its original publisher, Thomas Nelson, ceased distribution of the book shortly after it was originally published, citing "basic truths [that] just were not there," according to NPR.
The remarks aren't particularly surprising given Barton's history of anti-LGBT rhetoric. In 2015, he suggested that the American government could, in theory, outlaw homosexuality, and claimed that child molesters would be free to openly serve in the U.S. military once the ban on transgender service members is lifted.
Not sure where you get your information from, David, but we're having a hard time taking you seriously when your research has been so widely debunked.
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