There have been best wishes for David Benkof this weekend as he “takes his life in another direction.” Others confessed to having “misjudged” him, and hailed a change of position brought about through “logic [and] reasoning.”
What has the anti-gay-marriage activist done to provoke this response? He has announced on his blog (which blog now seems to have disappeared – cache here) that he is giving up the fight against gay marriage because of “disturbing information” that makes it “impossible” for him to keep supporting the pro-traditional marriage lobby.
While we have no solid sources we can quote at the moment, we have heard enough to suspect that he is speaking of the refusal of certain organizations, in this case Christian based, to hire a Jewish person (Benkof is Jewish). While we think this a fairly common practice for such groups — not hiring those who do not share their faith and mission — apparently Benkof was surprised by this and considers it antisemitic.
In some of the comments there appears to be an air of concern for Benkof, a sense that he has had some genuine change of heart, and even a sense of congratulation for this apparent volte-face.
Ex-Gay Watch cannot join in the celebrations. Benkof has proved himself consistently deceptive, vindictive and lacking in basic integrity. Our authors have personally been harassed and intimidated by Benkof, both publicly and privately. His turnaround on the marriage issue, accompanied by such vague reasoning, does nothing to inspire confidence.
One less voice decrying gays and lesbians and denying them their rights can only be a good thing. But do we at XGW (do gays and lesbians!) have any reason to trust Benkof because of this sudden announcement? Only if we ignore his consistently unprincipled behavior.
On the plus side, the crowd at Pam’s House Blend seem to have figured out Benkof pretty quickly.
Calling Pam Spaulding that slur, unprovoked, was uncalled for. But to quote one commenter from her blog, I will agree that Pam is a Babe In Total Control of Herself. And I know from personal experience that “well-behaved” girls never make history.
David– that was my take on it. The only people that some fundamentalists dislike more than Jews are gays. And a faggot kike is not merely a jewish homosexual that just left the room, but a double whammy of rejecting both JC AND salvation. Not to mention, as I was told when i was a little child, that the Jews killed the baby Jesus, and as I was told just last year by a fundie, everytime a fag has sex it makes Jesus cry, which could do wonders for the drought here, if true.
I think his bizarre attack on Pam made everything spiral out of control. I have very little respect for him after seeing his comments. I saw David years ago on a program and felt sorry for him. Now I just think he is sad.
Changed his mind???
How on Earth is that possible — I thought he’d lost it.
Fundamentalist Christians anti-semitic? Who would’ve guessed?
I doubt that they flat out told him that they do not hire Jews. He would have been screaming about that all over the place.
If it is about employment, they more than likely just turned him down. Why would anyone who knew anything about this guy want to share an office with him or even a conference call?
People who knew Benkoff when he was still active in gay circles report that they did not like him them, and I would bet that anti-gay folks who are allied with him today don’t like him. Everything that I have seen from him indicates that he would be an extremely difficult and disruptive guy to have around.
Actually, thats the word we are getting. Again, this is not at all uncommon for religious advocacy groups. I would imagine the same would hold for a Jewish organization, depending on their mission. When and if we can get something on the record, we will go into more detail. I personally suspect that it was no more than a teaser to give Benkof a lead into his next attention getting series of rants.