David and Jason Benham are perhaps best known for their HGTV reality show that never aired. Well, that and their weird obsession with gay people and, more specifically, the mechanics of anal and oral sex between men.
Related: Benham Brothers reveal their latest obsession: Prosthetic penises and all things gay
“Flip It Forward” was supposed to premiere on HGTV in the fall of 2014. But after Right Wing Watch ran a story about David Benham’s antigay advocacy work, which included holding a “prayer rally” in 2012 to “stop homosexuality and its agenda that is attacking the nation,” the network pulled the plug.
HGTV has decided not to move forward with the Benham Brothers' series.
— HGTV (@hgtv) May 7, 2014
And just like that, the extreme right had two new golden boys to rally around.
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The identical twins, who are both graduates of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, quickly became the poster children for liberal intolerance, religious persecution, and censorship.
Related: Benham Brothers can’t stop thinking about being seeded by gay men
Shortly after HGTV announced it was cutting ties with the bigoted brothers, the pair put out a statement that said:
We were saddened to hear HGTV’s decision. With all of the grotesque things that can be seen and heard on television today you would think there would be room for two twin brothers who are faithful to our families, committed to biblical principles, and dedicated professionals. If our faith costs us a television show then so be it.
Related: Benham Brothers talk about trying it out “both ways” in bed to “see which you prefer”
Then they hit the media circuit, doing interviews with everyone from CNN to the Hollywood Reporter, and insisting they didn’t hate LGBTQ people at all. In fact, they loved them! They just thought they were sick perverts who were damned to hell unless they gave up their wicked ways and repented for their disgusting sinful lifestyles.
So what happened after that? Well, the twinsies successfully managed to parlay their 15 minutes of infamy into careers as professional bigots. At least, for a while.
In addition to regularly booking appearances on major conservative media outlets like Fox News and the Trinity Broadcasting Network, as well as giving speeches at Christian hate groups like the Family Research Council and the Family Heritage Alliance, they published four books between 2015 and 2019, most of which are just rehashings of their homophobic blog posts, and they launched a vlog called “Living Among Lions,” named after their 2016 book of the same title.
Here’s an episode from earlier this year where they spend the first 20 minutes bashing drag performers. Viewer discretion advised!
But as time passed and people forgot about the whole HGTV debacle, their influence waned. (Though their obsession with LGBTQ people has not.)
The guys have gone from appearing on mainstream conservative media outlets to appearing on obscure right-wing podcasts like this and public access television shows hosted by religious zealots like this.
Related: After Orlando, Benham Brothers Love Gays So Much They Want To Help Them Turn Straight With Jesus
They no longer make headlines (except in April 2020 when David was arrested for violating stay-at-home orders during lockdown when he refused to stop blocking the entrance of an abortion clinic in Charlotte, North Carolina), and with just 8,000 followers on Twitter and 16,000 followers on Instagram, they hardly count as social media “influencers” anymore.
Related: Benham Brothers can’t stop talking about “forced participation” in the “sexual whims” of gay people
The brothers’ weekly vlog posts usually only receive between 500-700 views, and their tweets get virtually no engagement, like this one from August 7 offering free copies of their latest self-published book that only got 12 likes, 5 retweets, and 1 comment (from a troll).
Our business book is out! And we’re giving it away free! This book details our story and the system we used to build our business on 12 key steps that got us to “SeeYaPreneur” status by the age of 33. Click https://t.co/JpEXJB9Xk3 to grab your free copy! ???? pic.twitter.com/e33meW3VzU
— Benham Brothers (@BenhamBrothers) August 7, 2021
Most recently, David’s self-published the book, “Beauty in Battle,” co-written with his wife, Tori, didn’t even crack the top 500,000 on Amazon’s bestseller list. Released just one month ago, it’s currently #651,881 in Books.
We think it’s safe to say that these guys’ 15 minutes ran out a while ago and thank god for that. They’ve mostly been forgotten. Except, of course, by the internet, which remembers forever. That’s right, folx. Like their love for Jesus Christ, David and Jason Benham’s deep and unrelenting obsession with gay people and gay sex will live on for eternity.
Graham Gremore is the Features Editor and a Staff Writer at Queerty. Follow him on Twitter @grahamgremore.
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Chrisk
It’s amazing how much anti gay hate still sells. It’s an industry in itself.
These two shitheads stretched that 15 minutes of fame into years now. I don’t know if they’re actually full of hate but I do know they’ve sure as hell used it as a business strategy.
Now that they’ve been mostly forgotten for something newer by the hate groups they’re trying to peddle their expertise at business. Lol
fpcinnyc
I actually blocked my cousin’s wife over these two idiots. Last summer she was railing on about censorship and how these two had their careers destroyed. Just before I blocked her I told her that I’d always felt sorry for my cousin having to be married to her.
RTG
Next stop? OnlyFans and twincest? Never know if their bigot fans stop paying for their so called appearances to spew hate.
BigJohnSF
#brotherlylove
Rob Seneca
…
Matthewnow
How much you wanna bet they are both pig bottoms?
My mistake, Christian pig bottoms.
skeldare
I’d rather not remember these two.
Larry
And of course #Queerty knows if you put twins in a headline, we are gonna click it and we did. So isnt #Queerty helping them? There is no story here but they think we are seeing all those ads around here and that annoying video in the lower right. #MissionAccomplished
Mack
Know thy enemy.
Enuff
So if these two are fading into obscurity why are you giving them free press? Just in time to resuscitate their bullshit?
brian6767
Been saying the same thing every time these assholes post stories about Trump and his party. They give them free publicity. It’s non stop!
WashDrySpin
Queerty does this because they are white, they are “attractive” and it reaps of self-loathing that Graham has in his heart and wants and needs to share with others.
Donston
I don’t know if Graham is a self-loathing queer. But he definitely has some type of paraphiliacs for straight-presenting guys who indulge homo behaviors and for unabashed homophobes he considers physically attractive. For about a year almost all of his “articles” were about straight-presenting dudes who indulge homo behaviors, men in hetero commitments who indulge homo behaviors and these two bozo’s that everyone else stopped checking for pretty much as soon as HGTV dropped them. However, internalized phobias, gay resentments, inferiority complexes and obsession with guys who present as “straight”/mostly “straight”/overall hetero-leaning are so rampant among out queers that it doesn’t even register any longer.
Fname Optional Lname
me thinkith they protestith too muchith! Seems like it wouldn’t take much of a prison sentence to get them to embrace leather daddies and become hard core drag race fans!
WashDrySpin
they are not game…they are straight and HATE gays….so tired when gay men think they can flesh out that a straight men are hiding that they are gay is JUST pathetic and of course you are thinking with your libido and not your brain
Donston
There is a difference between being a regular homophobe/being anti-gay vs spending as excessive amount of time and energy honing in on how much you don’t like “gays” or how much disapprove homo behaviors. While we’ve seen many a dude indulge homophobia only to “come out” later or “come out” and still exude gay insecurities and homo resentments due to their mental health, not being able to handle their dimensions, contradictions, traumas, fluidity, male insecurities. So, I do think a decent percentage of guys who are aggressively male homophobic and full of gay panic and are obsessed with constantly establishing how into “chicks” they are do tend to be in the gender, sexual, romantic, affection, emotional investment, commitment/relationship contentment spectrum. But the majority of male homophobes don’t fit in this category.
lord.krath
You reap what you sow.
It would be nice if these folk focus on who they are rather than who they hate.
On the other hand, I’ve seen enough examples of projection to wonder about this case, as well.
What difference does it make? I didn’t know about them before this, and I still don’t care – other than to make this comment.
SDR94103
they have stretch marks around their lips. uhm.
woodroad34
Other than possible speaking fees from low rated far-wrong entities, how do they make the kinda money that “seeyapreneur”(whatever the heck that means) status offers them? I sort of read that originally as “see ya patsies”. Which would be kinda a self-own.
toddlicious
These two have not aged well in many ways….
Daniel M
Sooo… *why* lend them Queerty’s bandwidth now? I’m not seeing anything that justifies a story on them and I’m certainly not clear why their links were included in this article.
TheAbsoluteTRUTH
Queerty ran out of ivanka and giuliani stories they had to write something
James
Long story short…….. THEY ARE BOTH LOSERS.
Godabed
I do recall the white gay media thirsting over these two, but that happens from time to time. Their politics didn’t really matter the only thing that really mattered was their looks. Like how they swooned over the Nazi Cawthorn Madison and will still give him press.. *eyeroll* I don’t know why they have a spot here to be completely honest, who’s the gay who said “hey, what happened to those Aryan twins?” That would make a more interesting story and following the logic why they need to be spotlighted…again.
Donston
This site and the sites connected to it were the only “gay media” that kept reporting on these dudes. And at a certain point it was only Graham.
fredk3
my first thought was ‘these 2 look like nazi guards.’ never heard of them until today.
barryaksarben
So I will tell you what their business book has as its content —– PUSH hatred of a minority group to frightened entitled white fake christians screaming how they are coming to destroy their extremely narrow view of reality and you will make a BUTTLOAD of money. I use the term buttload on purpose of course since these boys seem to want to have gay sex but of course only with each other and neither was ever brave enough to tell his twin
Fahd
Comments speculating about Gremore’s motivations for this post seem on point to me. I guess it could be seen as part of Queerty’s ongoing right-wing watch. I’m wondering why the twins following/popularity among their particular audience has faded. Has their playing victim time expired? Have they gotten boringly repetitive? Has there been a decline in hate and homophobia? This article seems like a part 1.
Kangol2
Their popularity faded because their mostly White legion of supporters moved on to the next, new shiny far-right anti-gay thing/loudmouth after HGTV canned their @sses. These two were tired and tiresome from day one, but got a lot of mileage because they look like ideal Aryans. All they could spew was garden variety homophobia and right-wing claptrap. The Don the Con Q-rowd needs more radioactive, fantastically red meat, though.
richybruce
They should really do porn. I think that would make them relevant again… Which is what they’re looking for right?
Lobeskc
Why would Queerty even waste their breath on these two? I get, they are cute, but leave it at that and don’t waste time on these two! Enough already.
Grrrowler
I’ll echo what others have said and ask, why are we talking about them? If they’re fading into obscurity, let’s let them. What they crave more than anything is attention and this page just gave them that.
They are living proof of the saying “ignore them and they’ll go away” so I propose we continue ignoring them.
Den
For me the Benham twins have been a source of fascination in two ways. First is how people of slightly higher than average intelligence (if vocabulary and being articulate is taken as an indication) can totally shut down their sense of logic and willingly confuse dogma with reality. [I see two kinds of right wing “christian” influencers, the cynical manipulators and the sincerely deluded; and I believe the Behams are the latter]. Second, I’d love to see them in the same kind of videos that the Peters twins did for Bon Ami a number of years ago. Of course that will never happen, but they are well built and have that bland beauty that makes the camera love them.
With the Peters twins the level of connection they show when they are having sex is pretty effing amazing. Since there is no intergenerational coercion, uneven power dynamic, procreation or chance of genetic disease involved, the societal/religious taboos make no sense at all, and the knee jerk ick factor makes no sense either. I had a boyfriend about 35 years ago with a hetero identical twin brother and on more than one occasion we talked about how amazing a three way with him would be, had it been possible.
Kangol2
The people on here fantasizing about these twin creeps in porn are vocalizing aloud what motivates the ongoing coverage of them on Queerty. You can have these dead-eyed anti-gay, right-wing fanatical losers. Each to his, her and their own!
Redmon17
From their videos, it’s clear to me that the twins are a pair of deeply repressed self-loathing gay men, perhaps molested as boys and — given their looks — likely hit on throughout their lives. My bet is they also are wife beaters. Self-hate makes haters.
Donston
Those are some pretty big assumptions to make. They could just be standard insecure yet arrogant, homophobic, “straight” white male right-wingers. And they could just be using those things to try and fail at staying relevant. But yes, molestation/abuse/trauma, growing up surrounded by religion, homophobia, hetero pressures, toxic masculinity, not understanding the gender, sexual, romantic, emotional investment, commitment spectrum, not knowing how to maturely deal with fluidity, dimensions, paraphliacs, contradictions- these are indeed things that can help egg on internalized phobias, gay resentments, queer insecurities. But that certainly is not the case for all these hateful dudes.
BoomerMyles
Queerty, why give these homophobe f*ckers a platform?
Tombear
They would be fun in a three-way!
CapHill
The two of them and a starving hyena?
Jazz
The biggest revalation in that is that there is a list of the top 500,000 books. Who even looks at a list like that?
daddytop
Closet queens
PolishBear
If you do another “Whatever Happened To …?” article, maybe you can find out whatever happened to Jeff Gannon (aka James Guckert), the homocon “journalist” and male escort who made a few ripples 15 or 20 years ago.
cuteguy
Why would queerty give attention to these deplorable losers? Bc how they look? So disappointed. You are hurting the LGBT community by giving this kind of scum attention
Heywood Jablowme
An HGTV show made by rabid homophobes? If we could see that, we’d definitely know how gay they really are! Maybe it was fabulous?
But now they could do a sort of “Straight Eye For The Queer Guy” on how to butch up your home so that nobody suspects you’re gay. Maybe a St. Pauli Girl neon beer sign (like Michael Scott on “The Office”) or the football-obsessed “decor” of Kevin on “Kevin Can F**k Himself.” Or… maybe they are just too gay to pull that off.
I know! – get one of those extremely homoerotic paintings of cute hippie Jesus, like my childhood church had! Not gay at all!
ShiningSex
REPORT THEIR POSTS ON TWITTER AND REPORT THEIR VIDEO ON YOUTUBE. HATE SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED AND IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ON THOSE PLATFORMS.
radiooutmike
They know as much about business as does Vincent Adultman in Bojack Horseman.
frankcar1965
Shoot, I was hoping they had gotten pancreatic cancer and died already. Nasty Christian piles of dog shiite.