Just a Florida Republican Musing About Killing Gay People

In audio released by the Pensacola State Journal on Friday, Florida Republican State Rep. Mike Hill can be heard casually discussing the possibility of introducing legislation to kill gay people.

The recording, taken during a May 24 forum held by the Pensacola-based Women for Responsible Legislation, features a man whom the Journal identified as Hill responding to a constituent who noted that “In 1 Corinthians, it says that a man who has an affair with another man will be put to death.”

“It says that in the Old Testament too,” Hill answered, before another person chimed in, asking if he could “introduce legislation.”

Hill, a self-described “Pro Life! Pro Guns! Pro Jesus!!” representative, could be heard chuckling along with several members of the audience before replying “I wonder how that would go over?”

Hill reportedly prefaced his comments by telling audience members that homosexuality is “a behavior, and it’s a choice,” and that “You can say, ‘But I was born that way.’ […] but nobody’s forcing you to engage in that relationship, even if you were born that way.”

Last week, the Journal reported that during the same event, Hill told audience members that he’d received divine inspiration from God to sponsor an anti-Women’s Choice bill without exceptions for rape or incest, similar to one which recently passed in Alabama.

Shortly after the comments became public, Florida Democrats began demanding that he either apologize or resign from office over the comments.

We’ve reached out to Hill for comment and will update this post if we hear back.