Newsmax pundit Shemeka Michelle openly called for conservatives to be “more homophobic” during a Wednesday night appearance on “The Balance.”
Michelle, a Christian rapper and frequent Newsmax contributor, encouraged right-wingers to take their intolerance “up a notch” while attacking the LGBTQ community on the network, which often traffics in homophobic and transphobic hysteria.
Michelle joined host Eric Bolling and Common Sense executive editor Chris Bedford to pick on Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine, one of the first openly transgender officials in the U.S. government.
After railing against Levine for her support of Identity Alaska, a gender clinic in Anchorage, Bedford fumed about being called a bigot.
“It’s predatory, and it’s not just a live-and-let-live thing anymore,” Bedford said. “Right now, it’s really a thing that says if you don’t accept this predatory mental illness, then you’re a bigot.”
The LGBTQ community, he warned viewers, “is actually coming for your kids.”
fupp/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images/Getty Images
Michelle suggested the right should double-down on hatred.
“I actually think, if that’s the case, we need to be more homophobic,” she said. “We need to take it up a notch because these people have continued to do this because we failed to shame them.”
“We failed to put our feet down and stand tall and say what we believe without the fear of being canceled,” Michelle went on. “Now is not the time to worry about having friends. It is about linking up with people who have the same values as you, and realizing this is a war between good and evil. And If we don’t stand tall, we’re going to lose.”
Michelle went viral in June with her homophobic hit “Reclaim the Rainbow,” a response to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Pride Night plans to honor the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a nonprofit group of performers who use drag and satirical religious imagery to raise money for charity.
Backlash prompted the team to drop the LGBTQ charity from the event. Days later, the Dodgers reversed the decision and apologized to the organization.
Transphobia across the country has been rising as states have passed a record number of anti-trans laws in 2023, according to The New York Times. At least 17 states have voted to restrict medical care for transgender adults or minors during this year’s legislative sessions. In addition, GOP-led states have been pushing bills targeting where transgender people can use bathrooms, and how gender and sexuality should be handled in schools.