Anti-Gay Zealots Like Doug Chin Shouldn't Be Running For Congress As Democrats

Most of us outside Hawaii who have heard of Doug Chin know him as the courageous Attorney General-- appointed, not elected-- who has gone after Trump. Rachel Maddow tried making him a star on her show without doing any diligence about what she was extolling. I bet ole Rachel never saw that YouTube video up top. Yep, that's Doug Chin preaching like an insane zealot, screaming his homophobic rantings-- "God is right; your family is wrong." Holy Moly! A real vessle of the holy ghost at the Oahu Church of Christ.

That's over ten years ago but Chin had already married and graduated from law school, so he wasn't exactly a child. One of his benefactors, Republican former Mayor Peter Carlisle recalled first meeting him at Chin's church while Carlisle was campaigning. Carlisle said he was so impressed with Chin's public speaking, he told him to look him up if he ever needed a job. The Oahu Church of Christ is a branch of the extremely controversial International Churches of Christ-- not to be confused with the pro-LGBT equality United Church of Christ-- described in 2000 as "[a] fast-growing Christian organization known for aggressive proselytizing to [US] college students" and as "one of the most controversial religious groups on campus." Some call it a cult. And Chin's church is one of the 100 that signed onto a letter to oppose same-sex marriage during Hawaii's 2013 special session.

The church supports ignorant homophobic conversion therapy. And,Doug Chin wasn't just attending this anti-gay, anti-marriage equality, conservative, "cult-like" church-- he was the preacher who helped build it, and led his congregation to oppose gay-rights and support gay-conversion therapy for over 20 years. And he's still there!

A Republican pattern is emerging: Chin (1) helped lead the anti-gay movement as a religious zealot for 20 years, (2) added to mass incarceration (inmate population increased from 5000-6200) and bragged about caging the most people of the 100 prosecutors working under Republican Peter Carlisle, and (3) served as a corporate lobbyist and lawyer for private prisons, big banks, and wall street investment firms.

This resistance stuff is opportunistic and inauthentic. If Hawaii was a red state, he'd be running as a Republican. He's expected to declare his candidacy for the open Honolulu congressional seat as early as this week-- and as a Democrat-- exactly the kind of Democrat we need fewer of in Congress. I feel like we're making progress persuading state Rep. Kaniela Ing to run for this seat. His record is amazing-- but in the opposite way from Chin's. He's the state's most effective and dedicated progressive leader, the only progressive to have supported Bernie during the primary-- while the whole establishment backed Hillary. Hawaii's voters agreed with Kaniela, not the establishment, and Bernie cleaned up on caucus day in every part of the state, winning 23,530 (70%) to 10,125 (30%)-- and also beating Trump, Cruz, Rubio, Kasich, Carson and the Jebster combined (13,377).