Iowa GOP Denounces Antigay Remarks

The Iowa Republican Party has spoken out against antigay comments made
by Iowa house candidate Jeremy Walters on his Facebook page, prompting the
politician to apologize. 

Walters (pictured) wrote many disparaging comments about gay people on his Facebook profile, including his belief that God punishes gay people with the AIDS epidemic.

"They also need to know that when it says that their blood shall be upon them that tells me it is AIDS," Walters wrote, according to The Des Moines Register. "That’s how I feel."

The Republican Party criticized Walters’s comments after pressure from One Iowa, a civil rights group.

Matt Strawn, chair of the Republican Party of Iowa, quickly separated the party’s views from Walter’s comments.

“Mr. Walters' comments are inappropriate and in no way represent the beliefs of the Republican Party of Iowa,” Strawn told the Register.

The following day Walters issued an apology of his own.

“I am not against people having a gay lifestyle, and the statements made on Facebook have been taken the wrong way. The statement regarding gay homosexuality was not meant to be offensive and I deeply apologize,” he wrote in an e-mail to the Iowa Independent.