what gives?

Antigay GOP candidate Josh Mandel’s deep obsession with LGBTQ people reaches new heights

When Josh Mandel announced in February that he was seeking the Republican nomination to replace retiring Senator Rob Portman, few people thought that, by late July, he would be the favored frontrunner. But, according to CNN, he is.

Of course, the election is still 10 months away, and keeping frontrunner status in a crowded field of roughly a dozen people and counting is no easy task.

Which may explain why Mandel recently decided to make vehemently opposing gender pronouns part of his campaign platform. Because every Republican politician knows that when you want to rally up the base, just attack LGBTQ people. It’s a tried and true strategy.

Over the past week, the mediocre 43-year-old straight white male has tweeted three times about how he personally believes that there are only two genders and how he doesn’t understand what “they/them” pronouns even mean and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

In addition to being a painfully obvious attempt at pandering to his base, it’s also clear that Mandel has absolutely no idea what the hell he’s talking about since he keeps confusing gender with sex and science with bigotry.

Here’s how folx have been reacting…

Mandel’s obsession with LGBTQ people is one of the few things that has remained consistent throughout his 15-year political career.

In addition to opposing both same-sex marriage and domestic partner benefits after previously supporting them, he also voted against extending employment non-discrimination protections to LGBTQ people while serving in the Ohio State House of Representatives. Oh, and he supports the reinstatement of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, despite having two gay cousins, one of whom served in the military.

Graham Gremore is the Features Editor and a Staff Writer at Queerty. Follow him on Twitter @grahamgremore.

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