(LifeSiteNews) — Has the Republican Party after a decade of Trump dominance and years of homosexual conservative advocacy been “flipped” to become a “gay-friendly” party?
It appears so, if the candidacy of John Reid, an out-and-proud homosexual and MAGA Republican running for lieutenant governor in Virginia (alongside his much younger boyfriend)—and its apparent acceptance among the state’s Republicans—are any indication.
But the secular transformation of the GOP on this once-taboo issue will likely mean the loss of the votes of religious conservatives (socialcons) who for decades have been the backbone of the party. The few Virginia Christians who have spoken out publicly against Reid’s candidacy have been maligned—by fellow Republicans—as hateful, judgmental bigots, similar to how pro-LGBT leftists have savaged the “religious Right” ever since out-and-proud homosexuality was pushed into the mainstream of American politics more than half a century ago.
Reid, a pro-Trump former Richmond radio talk show host who favors repealing Virginia’s constitutional amendment banning “gay marriage” and hopes to “marry” his male partner of eight years, Alonzo Mable, is now the VA-GOP’s official candidate for lieutenant governor. He is the last man standing in the GOP primary to run for the number two job in Virginia government; a more prominent GOP candidate dropped out of the race due to illness.
Reid is clearly benefiting from Trump’s 2016 capitulation on “gay marriage” and full, public embrace of homosexual couples, an entirely new twist in GOP cultural politics. It wasn’t too long ago (1995) when pro-family conservatives held enough sway in the Republican Party to pressure GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole to return a paltry $1,000 donation from the (homosexual) Log Cabin Republicans.
Flip ahead almost three decades and a video at the top of Reid’s current campaign website shows Trump calling out his support of not just Reid, but Reid and partner Mable, during a Trump MAGA rally in Richmond, Virginia in March 2024. Trump says, “And radio host John Reid and Alonzo,” points to them and acknowledges the crowds’ cheers by remarking, “They like you guys. Wow!”
Afterward, a beaming Trump posed for an official photo between Reid and Mable, who is two decades younger than his aspiring politician boyfriend.
The Trump effect
Trump and his wife, First Lady Melania Trump, have steadily increased their advocacy of “gay Republican” causes over the years, culminating in (professed Catholic) Melania holding high-powered fundraisers for Log Cabin Republicans, including at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort last July. Previously, Melania boasted in a campaign video that her husband was the first major GOP candidate to support “gay marriage.”
Before Trump came along, conservative and moderate Republican factions would battle every four years over the GOP Platform, with the more powerful socialcons invariably winning. But with the rise of “gay conservatives” to prominence in the Trump era, whether they be highly visible, “openly gay” White House appointees like Ric Grenell and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, or “Homo Con” media stars like Dave Rubin and Guy Benson, the principled, social conservative GOP Platform has largely been rendered moot. That platform once stood strongly against all aspects of the “gay” activist agenda, from banning open homosexuals from serving in the U.S. military, to condemning same-sex “marriage.” Trump’s scaled back “platform” for his 2024 presidential run removed the pro-defense-of-marriage plank.
In this context, Reid stands out by exploiting Trump’s agnosticism on “gay marriage” as the first major homosexual GOP statewide candidate to campaign as an “out” homosexual couple with his male partner at his side.
(It is important to note that President Trump 47 has taken substantial executive actions against the “transgender” agenda, and overturned the previous Democrat administration’s “LGBTQ Pride” programs. He also defunded pro-LGBTQ “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” programs throughout the federal government. Recently Trump’s spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt announced that the administration will not be celebrating or spending any federal monies on “pride month” this June.)
READ: Kim Davis asks Supreme Court to uphold her right to refuse homosexual ‘marriage’ licenses
Reid’s past surfaces
After pornographic photos of men surfaced from a Tumblr site using the same handle as Reid’s other social media accounts, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin asked Reid to leave the race so as not to sink the GOP’s ticket in November. Reid insisted that the lewd account was not his, refused to quit, and defiantly accused Youngkin and his aides of “extortion.”
At the same time, the conservative Virginia Christian Alliance published an essay entitled “Why John Reid Could Tank the GOP Ticket and Destroy Virginia” by Lynchburg, Va., pastor Rev. Joshua Pratt.
Pratt writes, “On paper, he [Reid] checks the boxes of a traditional GOP candidate—staunch supporter of tax cuts, pro-police, and tough on crime. But there’s one fact that has exploded into controversy among social conservatives: Reid is openly homosexual and plans to marry his longtime partner, Alonzo…. For a party still deeply rooted in evangelical and socially conservative values, Reid’s candidacy is more than unusual—it’s divisive. And to some insiders, it’s downright dangerous.”
The article links to three unearthed photos of Reid and Mable: one shows Reid, standing beside his partner, wearing a shirt that reads, “Liberal in the Bedroom.” Another shows the two men lounging at a “drag” event “surrounded by flamboyantly dressed drag queens in a scene that critics are calling ‘spiritually offensive’ and ‘an open mockery of biblical values,’” Pratt writes. A third photo shows Reid holding a dollar bill, which he is apparently about to put in the cleavage of a drag queen’s (likely hormone-induced) breasts. Another photo, not linked in the VA Christian Alliance piece, shows Reid and a tattooed Mable smiling for the camera as they snuggle shirtless in bed.
In contrast to the Tumblr photos, Reid does not deny that these photos are of him, but said in a video message that past life choices of adult politicians are not the concern of voters. He said he has used pornography and had one-night stands in the past, but that the attention paid to his extracurricular activities is unfair and only occurring because he is “gay.”
Pratt says the math does not add up for a GOP win if Christians don’t come out to vote due to Reid’s sexually immoral lifestyle:
“Analysts warn that 10–15% of evangelical conservatives may stay home in November if Reid tops or flanks the ticket. That turnout dip could have devastating consequences—not just for Reid, but for down-ballot candidates in competitive House of Delegates districts.
“Republicans narrowly won the House in 2021 with a 52-48 edge but lost control in 2023 by just three seats. With every district now a battleground, a drop of even 5% in conservative turnout could flip key rural and exurban races. In counties like Patrick, Lee, and parts of Southwest Virginia, where church attendance and biblical values remain central to daily life, Reid’s candidacy could act like a wet blanket on voter enthusiasm and effect the statewide candidates Winsome Sears and Jason Miyares.
“A 2021 study by political scientists Gabriele Magni and Andrew Reynolds found that Republican candidates perceived as LGBTQ+ suffer an electoral penalty of up to 14.8 percentage points among GOP voters and over 17% among conservatives overall. This so-called ‘identity penalty’ could drag not just Reid down, but any Republican linked to him by proximity on the ballot.”
Pratt further criticized the equivocating Reid for supporting the repeal of Virginia’s Constitutional marriage defining marriage as one-man, one-woman (later neutralized by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 imposition of “gay marriage” on the entire nation), while hedging on a Democrat proposal to codify homosexual “marriage” in the state’s Constitution because it might undermine religious liberty.
Hateful barbs against Reid critics
The reaction was swift when Don Blake, founder and president of Virginia Christian Alliance, chose to publish Pratt’s article critical of John Reid candidacy. See the comments attacking Blake’s Facebook post linking to the article—which became so nasty that Blake chose to shut down comments on the post. Here is one sample barb, from Maresa Firth Spangler:
“Don Blake…you are an arrogant person who needs to study the Bible. What a hypocrite you are. Your need for prominence has outweighed your (what may have been?) your common sense and humanity. I’m ashamed of you and your “article” and you should be too. Good luck at the Pearly Gates. You are going to need it. There is NO Christian in you. Stop pretending.”
In castigating Blake, Pratt and anyone who dares to criticize Reid’s sodomitic lifestyle as a disqualifying liability, some Reid allies, sounding a lot like angry cultural leftists, smeared Reid’s critics as judgmental bigots, bad Republicans, and as un-Christ-like–the most hurtful attack you can make against a true believer. (The latter is certainly a false accusation in this case: Don Blake is a kind Christian leader who gives generously of his time and resources, including allowing the free use of his VA Christian Alliance headquarters in Richmond. Ironically, among those Republicans who have benefited from the use of Blake’s facility is John Reid. Moreover, Blake helped Reid establish a new organization. Disclosure: Blake is a friend of this writer and a Board Member of my non-profit organization, Center For Morality/AmericansForTruth.news.)
Do you get it? The Christians who are hesitant to elevate a man who publicly celebrates the Sin of Sodom as his “orientation” are the “bad Christians,” while those willing to disregard historic Judeo-Christian moral standards to elect Republicans are the “good Christians.”
Blake stated on Facebook: “A Republican candidate who openly defies God’s design for marriage, sexuality, and repentance is not a solution; he becomes part of the problem. This is not our ‘opinion,’ but grounded in scripture. The Bible warns us not to “do evil that good may result” (Romans 3:8). And Jesus said plainly: “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36).
He continued: “This is not about cutting off our nose to spite our face—it’s about not trading spiritual integrity for temporary political gains. Once Christians abandon conscience for convenience, we’ve already lost the deeper war. A compromised witness weakens the very foundations of the values we seek to defend. So yes, the battle matters. But so does how we fight it. Faithfulness comes first—even when it costs us.”
‘Proudly gay Christians?’
Another aspect of this debate is that most prominent “gay conservatives” also identify as faithful Christians. In 2020, longtime Trump ally and former U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell told another influential “gay Republican,” Dave Rubin, that, “I was made this way. I was born gay… So the fact of the matter is I fully embrace that I was made this way in the image of God, and you can be gay and be a Christian. And there’s no problem with it.”
Such assertions, mimicking widely discredited revisionist “gay theology” claims dating back to the early days of the “gay liberation” movement, engender deep confusion among practicing Christians and undermine biblical truth, especially among young people already bombarded by LGBTQ+ propaganda.
The reality is that out-and-proud homosexual candidates put faith-based voters in the very awkward position of choosing between their God-informed conscience and GOP political success.
Tragically, Reid’s visibility pulls the Republicans socially leftward, putting the party of “Faith, Family and Freedom” in the hypocritical position of elevating a candidate who casually mocks Christian sexual norms, and who proudly embraces what God calls an “abomination” (Leviticus 20:13) as his core “identity” and “orientation.”
One longtime Christian Republican activist in Virginia told LSN that she fears the increasingly brazen advocacy of proud homosexuality and “gay relationships” in Trump’s GOP and among MAGA Republicans will fracture the longstanding “marriage of convenience” in the party between religious conservatives and pro-gay libertarians:
“This is pitting the Trumpsters against the social conservatives,” said the activist, who voted for Trump, describing Reid’s MAGA-endorsed candidacy. Speaking anonymously, she told LSN, “The message is: If you don’t get on the [Trump] train, you’re going to get run over….If you don’t accept this radical, ungodly transformation of the Republican Party, then you’re a bigot!”
READ: Colorado officially repeals unenforced ban on homosexual ‘marriage’
Grenell: ‘Anti-gays’ will be run out of GOP
With President Trump and the First Lady on their side, Homo Cons can hardly be blamed for thinking they’re already won the battle over homosexuality in the GOP. Grenell said in an interview with Don Trump, Jr., last year that Republicans’ opposition to homosexuality has softened so much in recent years that “there’s no debate about [gay] “equality” in the GOP and being “anti-gay” could lead to people being “run out” of the party.
“I’ve watched how [conservatives have] changed on gay issues. … At this point, there’s no debate about [gay] equality,” the Grenell said on Don Jr.’s show “Triggered,” May 2, 2024. “And now I really believe that you can’t be anti-gay in the Republican Party and not be run out of the party.”
“It’s really important for people to understand … that the [pro-gay] growth in the Republican Party has been enormous. Donald Trump has blown the doors off this process to really welcome gay conservatives in,” Grenell said excitedly, before tearing into the “gay Left.”
Trump in his second administration appointed Grenell as Special Presidential Envoy for Special Missions of the United States.
Peter LaBarbera (X: @PeterLaBarbera) is a former reporter for LifeSiteNews, Washington Times and WorldNetDaily, and is founder and president Center For Morality (AmericansForTruth.news).