The Democratic National Committee and the party’s incumbent member of Congress representing Michigan’s 5th District joined hands Wednesday with a Flint bishop who made headlines over the summer for a series of homophobic remarks. According to flyers and a live-streamed recording of the event, Rep. Dan Kildee held a Get Out the Vote rally on Nov. 2—hosted by Bishop Christopher Martin, who turned heads in June over an anti-LGBT sermon delivered from the pulpit. The flier said Kildee would be joined by the Michigan Democratic Women’s Caucus, the Black Caucus, and Rep. Haley Stevens. (Stevens did not end up attending the event.) In June, Martin said that pastors should be heterosexual and referring to homosexuality as a perversion. “Because if you got the Holy Ghost, you can tell that some of these preachers y’all listening to are gay. They just fired one from a church around here the other day. I said they should have never hired him, he gay, they should have voted him out. He been gay,” he said. The comment sparked outrage in Flint, where residents questioned his ability to monitor a church-based mental health services program following the comments, according to FlintBeat. Kildee is in a neck-and-neck race with Paul Junge over Michigan’s redrawn 8th district.
