The unidentified airman, who posted under the name “Baptist Dave 1611” on YouTube, referred to gay individuals as “sodomites,” “roaches” and “vermin scum,” among various other slurs, Military.com reported.
“The sodomites, the homos, they do all their filthy acts in the dark of night where no one can see them,” the airman said in a 11-minute video, as reported by the Air Force Times. “When you get these perverts on their own, they flee like cockroaches, like the roaches they are, the vermin scum, the pedophiles that they are."
The servicemember also made known his support for Grayson Fritts, a Baptist pastor based in Knoxville, Tennessee, who recently came under fire for calling for the arrest, trial and execution of members of the LGBTQ community. According to the Times, Fritts, who also acts as a detective for the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, made the remarks during a sermon.
In the June 19 video in which the airman voiced his support for Fritts, he claimed that Christians agree with the Baptist pastor’s beliefs, but that they keep quiet because they’re afraid that the “homo mafia” will ruin their livelihoods, the Times reported.
The airman also took issue with parents who take their children to “drag queen story hour” events, claiming that adults are forcing their kids to be sexualized.
“If you’re making your son, for example, dress up as a woman and go dance at a sodomite bar, that’s hip, that’s cool, that’s trendy,” the airman said. “But if you just believe the Bible, and you take your kid to church, that’s child abuse, right?”
In another video, titled “Who I Hate,” the airman goes on to call Mormon missionaries “ministers of Satan” because they preach what he believes to be a false religion. He also referred to Islam as a “violent, barbaric, pedophilic cult” that was created by, of course, Satan.
And yet, that’s not all that was said by the airman. The Times reports that in a third video where he was not in uniform, he bashed a Cracker Barrel restaurant because it had refused to serve Fritts.
It should be noted that all videos posted to the “Baptist Dave 1611” YouTube channel have been removed from the video-sharing site.
Maj. Nick Mercurio, spokesperson for the service, told Military.com that “the specifics of the situation are being reviewed by the airman's command team” and that the Air Force “considers diversity to be one of our greatest assets.”
“Airmen are expected to treat one another with dignity and respect. We do not tolerate behavior that is contrary to those values,” he added. Mercurio did not provide any details that would identify where the airman is stationed or if he is an officer.