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James Meeks

Former Illinois State Senator

Updated: April 21, 2023

—Says God is against homosexuality: “Men should not be marrying men, and women should not be marrying women…. God does not support homosexuality, and neither do I.”

—His church operated a “Halloween Fright Night” that portrayed gay men as going to hell: “A fenced-in cell housed a few denizens of ‘hell,’ including a pedophile trolling the Internet for a young victim, a meditating Buddhist, and two mincing young men wearing body glitter who were supposed to be homosexuals.”

—While considering a run for governor, told his congregation: “If I do run and there are two people in the race who both are not standing for morality, if I don’t have every white Christian vote in the state of Illinois, I will stand on top of the Sears Tower and call every one of ya’ll racist.”

The GLAAD Accountability Project catalogs anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and discriminatory actions of politicians, commentators, organization heads, religious leaders, and legal figures, who have used their platforms, influence and power to spread misinformation and harm LGBTQ people.