An anti-LGBTQ+ Evangelical Christian activist in Florida left many outraged after he compared same-sex marriage to, of all things, marrying a Volkswagen.
The bizarre assertion—which, again, likens human beings to German automobiles—came from Frank Wright, an activist affiliated with Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, an anti-LGBTQ+ church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The church was founded by minister D. James Kennedy, who passed away in 2007.
His namesake evangelism entity, D. James Kennedy Ministries, frequently spreads homophobic and transphobic propaganda on radio, TV and the internet.
Wright is D. James Kennedy Ministries' President & CEO, and a member and Sunday school teacher at Coral Ridge Presbyterian. His comment about people's marriages and Volkswagen's came during a Facebook Live discussion with John Rabe, another official at D. James Kennedy Ministries.
You can see the exchange here:
Wright opened his comments by asserting gay and lesbian people are pawns in a socialist plot bent on destroying heterosexuality.
"I hate to break it to them, but many of our gay and lesbian friends, they've just been used by the left to destroy the historic definition of marriage and changed the criteria to only be that of love."
To further illustrate his point, he went on to make his weird comparison of LGBTQ+ to Volkswagens.
"If two people love each other, or some guy and his Volkswagen, he loves his Volkswagen, he ought to be able to marry his Volkswagen."
Wright's words came just one day after the community of Coral Ridge was honored.
The area was recognized in a ceremony by Dean Trantalis, the openly gay mayor of Fort Lauderdale. The city is a well-known mecca for LGBTQ+ people in Florida and has one of the highest concentrations of same-sex couples in the country.
In that ceremony, Trantalis acknowledged Coral Ridge's anti-LGBTQ+ history, but urged his community to "let go" because "times have changed and so have their leaders."
Trantalis received widespread condemnation for his words, including from his own Vice Mayor Steve Glassman, also a gay man, and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has deemed D. James Kennedy Ministries a hate group.
And joining the chorus of critics—and proving Trantalis wrong in the process—was Wright.
After comparing gay people like Trantalis to Volkswagens, Wright went on to accuse the mayor of forcing a conciliatory "Rodney King theology [of] why can't we all just get along" upon Coral Ridge and its leadership.
On Twitter, people found this whole thing equal parts disgusting and ridiculous.
Before his death, D. James Kennedy and his church were renowned in Florida for their virulent homophobia and outspoken opposition to the teaching of evolution in schools.
