Reality TV star Duane Chapman, known as Dog the Bounty Hunter, went on a homophobic and transphobic rant in an interview this week, threatening violence against transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Two of his daughters have spoken out strongly against the views he expressed.
Chapman made the remarks in a Tuesday interview he and his wife, Francie Fane, gave to Christian televangelist Sharell Barrera. Churches have failed to stand up for what he considers true Christian values, he said.
“People playing church all led to Bud Light. Is that right?” he said, referring to Mulvaney’s online promotion of the beer. He went on to misgender and threaten Mulvaney, a trans woman. “Get that punk down,” he said. “Rebuke Satan out of him and just give him a couple black eyes. … I mean that. If I ever see him, I’m dropping him.”
Churches, he said, “have got kids changing their sexuality. … They’re so wacko themselves that where they have brought us all is to the gates of hell. So we have to stop all that, rebuke them.”
He said he has friends and family members who are part of the LGBTQ+ community, but “that’s not the way God made us. … He didn’t make Adam and Steve, he made Adam and Eve.” LGBTQ+ people are lost and need to be saved, he said.
“We don’t need no more sissy men. … We need men and women that are willing to stand up against evil and speak the word of God,” he added, asserting that “Jesus was not a sissy man.” He also denounced Target for stocking Pride merchandise, something that has resulted in right-wing threats to the retailer and its employees, leading it to pull some goods.
His daughter Lyssa Chapman, a lesbian, told TMZ she spoke to her father on the phone after the interview, but the conversation was mostly them yelling at each other. “Lyssa says Dog's comments do not reflect the morals he taught her growing up ... and she loves him, but worries he’s watching too much cable news,” TMZ reports.
Another of his daughters, Bonnie Chapman, posted a statement to Instagram saying her father’s comments “reflect prehistoric beliefs and do not align with true Christian values. Jesus loves everyone and would strongly denounce this non-accepting rhetoric.” She also is a member of the LGBTQ+ community, she noted.
“It is utterly repulsive to advocate violence against our transgender community, and it is equally repulsive to invoke Jesus’ name in vain to support such views,” she added. “Making comments about my sister’s marriage and sexuality is abhorrent. I have personally apologized to my sister, Lyssa, for our father's words, and I extend that apology publicly as well.”
Bonnie Chapman has previously accused her father of being racist and homophobic, but she also mentioned that he once said he’d give his life to defend a gay man. It’s “mind-boggling” to see him “backtrack so fiercely,” she wrote.
“I want to offer my sincerest apologies to Dylan Mulvaney, whom my father threatened, for the irreparable harm this may have caused,” she continued. “As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I am absolutely horrified but not surprised by these comments. I will continue to live a life rooted in love and acceptance, and I hope you all choose to do the same. Jesus preached unconditional love, and I will steadfastly follow his teachings.”
