Jason and David Benham lost their HGTV show in 2014 after the network discovered a history of anti-LGBT statements and activism. Since then the Benham brothers have become spokesmen for the anti-LGBT wing of Christianity and what they say are attacks by the LGBT community to silence people who make discriminatory remarks against LGBT people.

At the end of May, the brothers will make their first visit to Minnesota in order to headline the Minnesota Family Council’s annual fundraising dinner.

The Minnesota Family Council is the state’s oldest conservative Christian group. Founded in the early 1980s to fight to keep sodomy laws on the books, the Council has fought against equity for LGBT Minnesotans. The issues the group has fought against include: marriage equality, LGBT-inclusive anti-bullying efforts, civil unions, local domestic partner ordinances, LGBT-inclusive non-discrimination laws, and transgender-inclusive health care and school safety. It has advocated for conversion or “ex-gay” therapy, and has tried to get transgender school employees fired.

The Benham brothers have their own similar history. In 2004, the North Carolina natives tried to convince the Charlotte City Council to revoke a permit for Charlotte’s Pride festival. Qnotes, a LGBT newspaper in the Carolinas, noted:

David referred to drag queens using a common anti-transgender slur, while Jason followed up with the tyrannical request, emphasis added: “They have a right to apply for this permit, but you have a right and responsibility to deny it. I employ [sic] you not to be governed by the fear in which you feel. If you deny them this permit you will open a can of worms but you in your leadership position have to take that responsibility and you have to not allow the fear of making this homosexual community mad. You have to accept that responsibility and deny them every permit that they ask for.”
Over the last few years — and especially after the cancellation of their HGTV show, the brothers have frequently targeted the LGBT community. In an interview with the American Family Association, that Satan is behind attacks on “traditional marriage.”

In February, the brothers appeared on the Family Research Council’s radio program and said:

“We are about to fight in Charlotte this transgender bathroom ordinance,” David Benham chimed in. “It’s so depraved and just absolutely craziness that I look back and I see that pattern.”
“It’s taken the form of nondiscrimination,” he continued. “That’s just simply the fourth point of the radical gay agenda’s plan to change America. The fourth point is ‘do not request direct support for our lifestyle, but rather assume nondiscrimination as our support.’ This is a disguise. And it’s not because of LGBT people, it’s because of this radical agenda.”

In an August interview with the Family Leader, David Benham said, “The idea of a ‘homosexual agenda’ that seeks to capture the nation and capture children’s curriculum and capture television and entertainment and laws – that is an idea that is evil and wrong and needs to be dealt with.”

In a column for Fox News, the brothers wrote about “militant gay activists”:

“It’s not enough to live and let live, these activists are now forcing their lifestyle choices on everyone, even if it means bullying a 70-year-old florist. We’ve shifted from religious freedom to forced acceptance in America…At first, homosexual activists wanted acceptance. Then they wanted appreciation. Now they demand celebration.”

The brothers claim to have converted a gay man to become straight, in part, by giving him tickets to a Chicago Cubs game.

The brothers particpated in an effort to block a LGBT non-discrimination ordinance in Houston, compared gay activists to ISIS, and worked to stop a LGBT nondiscrimination ordinance in Charlotte.

Past Minnesota Family Council annual dinner keynotes have included Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Tim Pawlenty, and Dr. Ben Carson.

Here’s the Minnesota Family Council’s announcement of the annual dinner:

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