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Jeremy Walters
In an e-mail to The Iowa Independent, Republican legislative hopeful Jeremy Walters said he regrets the controversial Facebook postings regarding AIDS being a punishment from God for homosexuality and has removed them from the site.
Walters, who is challenging incumbent Democratic state Rep. Kevin McCarthy of Des Moines in House District 67, last week wrote that when the Bible says homosexuals should be “put to death; their blood shall be upon them,” the blood is really AIDS. When the statements were made public they were greeted with outrage by One Iowa, the state’s largest LGBT-rights group, and denounced by Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Matt Strawn. When the party later discovered Walters was scheduled to volunteer at the GOP Iowa State Fair booth, his invitation was rescinded.
Despite initially saying he would not remove the postings from his Facebook page, Walters had a change of heart and took them down. He has also changed his privacy settings so that the public can no longer see what he posts.
Walters’ statement to The Iowa Independent:
I am not against people having a gay lifestyle, and the statements made on Facebook have been taken the wrong way. The statement regarding gay homosexuality was not meant to be offensive and I deeply appologize.
As far as the quote from Bible; I was replying to someone elses post. It should have been posted as a comment on their page, not my Facebook wall. I appologize for the mistake and if this statement offened anyone. Both postings have been removed and these comments do not pertain to my campaign or the Republican Party of Iowa. My passion is to listen and learn from the people so I can represent them at the statehouse. Everyone makes mistakes, please forgive me.
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