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It’s rather hilarious that a bigot precedes some deeply prejudice comments he made at a holiday party with, “We cannot win without the independents and the Tea Party, so get over it, folks. You’re going to have to get along with those folks.”

I assume former state rep and Michigan national GOP committeeman Dave Agema (pictured) believes independents hate gay people just as much as he does. Never mind the majority of Americans now support gay marriage — an obvious tip that people are learning to stop treating gays as if they have the cooties and are contagious. Nope, according to him, gay people remain nasty vile individuals, but not only that, though, apparently gays want free health care because they all got AIDS!

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The Herald-Palladium reports:

“I stand for traditional marriage, no homosexual ones,” he said. “… The family unit is the basic unit in society. When you tear the family apart, you tear the country apart.”

[Agema] has taken flak nationally for his stance against gay marriage, but he said he doesn’t mind because while working at American Airlines, he saw firsthand what happens when benefits are extended to gay people.

He said American Airlines workers would say a person with AIDS was their lover so that person could get medical benefits.

“Folks, they [gay people] want free medical because they’re dying [when they’re] between 30 and 44 years old,” he said. “To me, it’s a moral issue. It’s a Biblical issue. Traditional marriage is where it should be, and it’s in our platform. Those in our party who oppose traditional marriage are wrong.”

Look at that, y’all. I beat certain death by a whole year.

So Agema believes Republicans need to accept that they need independents to win elections, but dually feels that traditional marriage is their platform and all Republicans should be anti-gay marriage. Not only that, the people who support marriage equality — i.e. lots and lots of independents — are wrong.

How effective do you think Agema will be in gaining votes if he is telling the voting bloc he needs to win that they are wrong on a major political issue?

Exactly.

And as Think Progress notes:

Such talking points are par for the course for Agema, who believes that homosexuality is an “unhealthy lifestyle” that “usually leads to early death.” In fact, he believes that homosexuality is something that people choose and that schools are actually turning kids gay by teaching them that being gay is an “OK lifestyle.” In 2011, Agema even proposed punishing Michigan state universities that provided domestic partner benefits by cutting 5 percent from those universities’ budgets.

Over the past year, the Republican Party has repeatedly claimed that it needed to tone down— or at least sugarcoat or offer some “grace, love and respect” — when discussing opposition to gay rights. That hasn’t stopped the RNC from approving another resolution opposing marriage equality, citing debunked junk science to justify condemning same-sex families as inferior. Agema’s brazen rhetoric does not abide this RNC guidance, nor does it seem to stray too far from the committee’s other actions.

But let Agema tell it and it’s the Democrats’ fault for giving Americans the perception that Republicans are divided on strategy and ideology.

A couple of things:

1. The ACA is not a free program. It should be, but it isn’t.

2. There are an ample amount of statistics available to prove that AIDS is no longer the “gay cancer” and hasn’t been for quite some time.

3. Although Agema is a 64, bitter, and full of it, I hope he leads a long, long life. That way he can see marriage equality go nationwide, a further weakening of HIV/AIDS, and a bunch of gay daddies and mamas. Then after he croaks, I can sing, “R.I.P. WE JUST HIT THE CLUB!” on the day of his funeral.

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Michael Arceneaux is a Houston-bred, Howard-educated writer. You can read more of his work on his site, The Cynical Ones. Follow him on Twitter: @youngsinick