Ex-Colorado Lawmaker Believes Gay Demons Are Taking Over Ad Execs

One month after its release, a Zales Jewelers holiday ad featuring a same-sex couple continues to infuriate moral panic-enthusiasts the right-wing conservative crowd.

One Million Moms, which has worked itself up over everything from Ellen DeGeneres to Chobani yogurt in years past, slammed the ad for “subjecting families to the decay of morals and values” last month. Now, a former Colorado state representative is following suit, arguing that the television and advertising executives who produced the clip are possessed by demons.

Gordon Klingenschmitt, who was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives in 2014 but failed in his state senate bid earlier this year, made the eyebrow-raising declaration in the Dec. 7 installment of his “Pray In Jesus Name” radio program, Right Wing Watch reports. Zales Jewelers, he said, should be using their business to promote “godly marriage and biblical values,” but have opted otherwise by using a same-sex couple in their ad. The blame, however, lies in the hands of a “demonic spirit.”

“In fact, it is a demonic spirit not only inside of the lesbian couple who are pretending to get married on this TV commercial,” he said, “but now influencing and ruling in the heart of the ad executives who have decided at Zales Jewelers that they should promote this as a good thing to all of America.”

Arguing that Zales execs are “deceivers” who are “fooling the American public,” Klingenschmitt added, “We need to expose that as wrong.”

Sadly, the remarks are in line with Klingenschmitt’s history of anti-LGBTQ declarations. Last year, he blasted the Boy Scouts of America for “thumbing their nose at God” when the organization lifted a controversial ban on openly gay adult participants or, in his words, promoting “homosexual men to mentoring and camping with your boys.”

Is the ad really worthy of this brouhaha? Watch below and decide for yourself.

CORRECTION: The original version of this article identified Klingenschmitt as a Colorado lawmaker. In June, Klingenschmitt opted not to run again for his Colorado House seat and instead made a bid for the state senate, but lost in the primaries.