“I regret using any words that hurt people or that make people think I hate them, or that make people think I look down on them.”
—E.W. Jackson, a Republican candidate for Virginia’s U.S. Senate seat, in an interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch in which Jackson attempted to dispel what he feels are misconceptions about his conservative beliefs.
Jackson previously ran for lieutenant governor in 2013, losing to Ralph Northam in the general election. During that campaign, Jackson came under intense criticism for controversial statements he made about LGBTQ rights, abortion, and a host of other social issues. Some of those statements included calling gay people “very sick” and “perverted.”
Attempting to set the record straight, Jackson told the Times-Dispatch that he regrets the tone of his past comments.
He still opposes same-sex marriage and measures that promote LGBTQ equality, such as nondiscrimination laws, but says he hopes to communicate his conservative values in a less offensive manner.
“I am going to endeavor in this campaign to express that in a way that calls attention to my faith, where appropriate, without implying some sort of hostility against gay people or transgender people,” Jackson said. “Because I don’t believe that. And that’s one of the many lessons I’ve learned.”
Jackson, the pastor of The Called — Exodus Faith Ministries in Chesapeake, Va., also attempted to put his anti-LGBTQ rhetoric into context.
He noted that the comments for which he came under fire were “said not in the context of a campaign but on Christian radio where I’m speaking as a pastor and minister to Christians.”
He also claims that if he were to see someone bullying a gay or transgender person, he would step in “and physically fight for them.”
Jackson is one of four GOP candidates currently running for the seat held held by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine.
Also seeking the party’s nomination is Corey Stewart, a former Prince William County supervisor who almost toppled Ed Gillespie in this year’s Republican primary after running a Trump-style campaign seizing on preserving Confederate monuments as a way of opposing “political correctness.”
Lio Cundiff was sitting on a bench near Chicago's Belmont Harbor on February 18, talking on the phone with his aunt, when he looked up to see a woman screaming and chasing a baby stroller rolling toward the water after being carried off by the wind.
The National Weather Service had warned of sustained winds of 20 to 30 miles per hour, with gusts reaching 50. The force of the wind sent the stroller -- carrying an 8-month-old girl -- into the lake.
While the baby’s mother stood in shock, Cundiff, a 31-year-old Chicago transgender man and server at the local restaurant Oak and Honey, jumped into the lake and swam to the stroller, despite not knowing how to swim. He fought to keep the infant from slipping beneath the surface.
Nepal has elected its first-ever transgender woman to parliament, with the election commission confirming last week that 37-year-old LGBTQ rights advocate Bhumika Shrestha will serve as a lawmaker from the centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party, which secured 182 of 275 seats earlier this month.
In Nepal, voters cast two ballots in parliamentary elections: one elects 165 members from single-member constituencies using first-past-the-post voting, while the other fills 110 seats from party lists distributed proportionally based on the overall vote.
President Donald Trump has threatened to bring the government to a standstill by refusing to sign any legislation until Congress passes the SAVE America Act, a bill requiring voters to prove their citizenship.
The bill, approved by the U.S. House of Representatives last month, is currently stalled in the Senate. It would require voters to prove their citizenship by submitting a U.S. passport or birth certificate matching the name on their voter ID when registering and present valid photo identification before casting a ballot. The measure would also require states to share voter information with the Department of Homeland Security to verify citizenship.
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“I regret using any words that hurt people or that make people think I hate them, or that make people think I look down on them.”
—E.W. Jackson, a Republican candidate for Virginia’s U.S. Senate seat, in an interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch in which Jackson attempted to dispel what he feels are misconceptions about his conservative beliefs.
Jackson previously ran for lieutenant governor in 2013, losing to Ralph Northam in the general election. During that campaign, Jackson came under intense criticism for controversial statements he made about LGBTQ rights, abortion, and a host of other social issues. Some of those statements included calling gay people “very sick” and “perverted.”
Attempting to set the record straight, Jackson told the Times-Dispatch that he regrets the tone of his past comments.
He still opposes same-sex marriage and measures that promote LGBTQ equality, such as nondiscrimination laws, but says he hopes to communicate his conservative values in a less offensive manner.
“I am going to endeavor in this campaign to express that in a way that calls attention to my faith, where appropriate, without implying some sort of hostility against gay people or transgender people,” Jackson said. “Because I don’t believe that. And that’s one of the many lessons I’ve learned.”
Jackson, the pastor of The Called — Exodus Faith Ministries in Chesapeake, Va., also attempted to put his anti-LGBTQ rhetoric into context.
He noted that the comments for which he came under fire were “said not in the context of a campaign but on Christian radio where I’m speaking as a pastor and minister to Christians.”
He also claims that if he were to see someone bullying a gay or transgender person, he would step in “and physically fight for them.”
Jackson is one of four GOP candidates currently running for the seat held held by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine.
Also seeking the party’s nomination is Corey Stewart, a former Prince William County supervisor who almost toppled Ed Gillespie in this year’s Republican primary after running a Trump-style campaign seizing on preserving Confederate monuments as a way of opposing “political correctness.”
The other Republicans seeking the seat are Ivan Raiklin, a veteran and D.C. tech investor, and Del. Nick Freitas (R-Culpeper), who introduced a bill that would have allowed individuals and businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ people without any consequences, so long as they claimed the discrimination was based on their sincerely held religious beliefs.
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