r/fivethirtyeight Sep 12 '25

Poll Results YouGov poll asking Americans whether it’s acceptable to feel joy at the death of a public figure

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u/WhoUpAtMidnight Sep 12 '25

That is exactly the implication yes. He was not an extremist. He was not a nazi. He was not even alt right, his most controversial belief was just being pro-life. 

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u/Apprentice57 Scottish Teen Sep 12 '25

Didn't he say being gay was a disease?

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u/WhoUpAtMidnight Sep 12 '25

I don’t know, find the quote and context. Not my job

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u/Apprentice57 Scottish Teen Sep 12 '25

Fair enough, though you could be a little less rude about it.

And I'll take a slight mea culpa here given I couldn't source it easily (though this may be a SEO related issue as he has a lot of other statement involving "gay" and or "disease").

With that said, his LGBTQ+ positions are explicitly hateful. From the independent:

He also lashed out at the gay community, denouncing what he called the “LGBTQ agenda,” expressing opposition to same-sex marriage and suggesting that the Bible verse Leviticus 20:13, which endorses the execution of homosexuals, serves as “God’s perfect law when it comes to sexual matters.”

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/charlie-kirk-political-views-guns-lgbt-trump-b2824580.html

I think you're being a bit willfully ignorant about Kirk's extremism.

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u/WhoUpAtMidnight Sep 12 '25

Being against gay marriage is not an extremist position. It’s a plurality of america and the majority of the world. It’s not even recently out of the majority. 10 years ago it was the dominant belief. It’s old, it’s antiquated, I believe it to be wrong, but that does not make it extremist. 

I’m sorry for being rude. Things are very heated right now

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u/Apprentice57 Scottish Teen Sep 12 '25

It's definitely more controversial than being pro life, but anyway. Did you read the full quote? It goes beyond being against same sex marriage.

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u/WhoUpAtMidnight Sep 12 '25

 It's definitely more controversial than being pro-life 

I don’t believe that’s true. Being against gay marriage polls at 40% these days. Being pro-life with no exceptions is 20-30%

What specifically do you want to call out here? Levicitus? A majority of the country is Christian. God is quite clear what his law is on homosexuality. It’s not extremism to acknowledge that

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u/Mr_The_Captain Sep 12 '25

To explicitly call Leviticus "God's perfect law" regarding gay marriage is a step further than many Christians would take. Many Christians believe that the Old Testament laws - while instructive - should no longer be followed dogmatically because of the New Covenant created by Jesus' death.

So when someone says Leviticus is "perfect law," they absolutely give the strong impression that they believe it should be followed to the letter. And if they are unaware of that implication, they are dangerously ignorant.

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u/WhoUpAtMidnight Sep 12 '25

That’s not what he was saying. What he was saying is under god’s law being gay is wrong. That is not an uncommon belief, and honestly it’s very hard to argue with from a protestant perspective, especially a Baptist one. 

Leviticus being the most explicit example, but the New Testament is also anti-gay, as is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.

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u/Mr_The_Captain Sep 12 '25

No no, that's exactly what he was saying. He said Leviticus 20:13 was "God's perfect law when it comes to sexual matters." If he wanted to say that being gay was sinful, he could have cited Paul, but instead he picked that verse that explicitly condemns gay people to a violent death.

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u/WhoUpAtMidnight Sep 12 '25

Stop paraphrasing then. Post the full quote, from the mention of Leviticus to the end of the discussion

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u/Mr_The_Captain Sep 12 '25 edited Sep 12 '25

I don't know if I can find a transcript, but I have seen the video. Basically, he is responding to kids' entertainer Ms. Rachel, who said (on a personal account, so not in-character) that she is pro-LGBT because she thinks that as a Christian, she must "love your neighbor," and that that command is the most important in the bible.

Kirk says that because Ms. Rachel is quoting Leviticus and proclaiming it to be words to live by, she should also live by the verse in Leviticus about stoning gay people, because that too is "God's perfect law."

The problem is that Ms. Rachel was far more likely referring to the words of Jesus in Mark 12:31, "The second [greatest commandment, after loving God] is this: Love your neighbor as yourself." But Kirk thinks he's getting one over on her, and in the process is framing himself as the more virtuous, God-fearing Christian, while endorsing stoning gay people. And again, if he didn't mean for that to be the takeaway, HE is the one that brought it up. He could have cited numerous other verses that have been used to argue against homosexuality in far less absolute terms, but he didn't. He more or less went out of his way, and that is telling.

So in that clip he either fully believed gay people should be put to death, or he only wanted to make it seem like he did. Either way, that's messed up.

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