US: HGTV pulls plug on reality show after host outed as anti-gay activist
An American cable channel is pulling the plug on a planned reality show, after reports that one of the hosts was an “extremist anti-gay activist”.
HGTV announced last month that it had commissioned ‘Flip It Forward’, a show about house-flipping hosted by twin brothers David and Jason Benham.
However, the network has now pulled the plug on the show, after David Benham was outed as anti-gay activists by Right Wing Watch.
RWW reported that in 2012, both the brothers led a ‘prayer’ rally outside the Democratic National Convention, intended to stop “homosexuality and its agenda that is attacking the nation” and “demonic ideologies taking our universities and our public school systems”.
David Benham – who serves on the board of anti-gay group ‘the Coalition of Conscience’ – has also protested pride marches and abortion clinics, campaigned for North Carolina’s same-sex marriage ban, and compared same-sex marriage to Nazi Germany.
The pair’s father, Flip Benham, is also the head of an anti-abortion protest group, and has been convicted of stalking an abortion-performing doctor and interrupting church services by openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson, who he labelled a “sodomite Episcopalian bishop”.
A short statement today said: “HGTV has decided not to move forward with the Benham Brothers’ series.”
HGTV has decided not to move forward with the Benham Brothers’ series.
— HGTV (@hgtv) May 7, 2014
When asked about his anti-gay activism yesterday, David Benham said: “I’m not ‘anti’ anyone and love everyone. I look forward to showing that on television soon! :)”
Listen to David Benham talk to conservative radio host Janet Mefferd below:
