A former state representative in Missouri with an extensive history of anti-LGBTQ+ slurs and insults against fellow politicians and average citizens is now running for higher office in the state.
Republican Chuck Basye, who served four terms in the Missouri House of Representatives, filed on Tuesday to run for the state’s Senate. The former Marine and air traffic controller has repeatedly used profane and homophobic rhetoric and slurs in his social media posts and private messages, calling political opponents and their supporters “f*gs,” suggesting they use sex toys and engage in oral sex, and more.
He recently told the Missouri Independent he has no plans to stop offending others.
“I’m very comfortable with speaking my mind the way I do it,” Basye told the Independent. “And I’m going to continue to do that until I’m no longer able to do it.”
Basye’s Facebook profile pic is a picture of a dog’s anus reimagined as a campaign ad for President Joe Biden.
The latest target of his homophobic ire is his opponent for the state senate, Democrat Stephen Webber. Basye has accused Webber, a former state representative and former Chair of the Missouri Democratic Party, of being gay and directed a lengthy string of insults and slurs against him.
In a post to X, formerly Twitter, yesterday, Webber revealed screenshots of posts he alleged came from Basye.
In the exchange, Basye asked if the original poster was “one of those St. Louis f*gs that aren’t happy unless everyone else is unhappy” before suggesting the poster should consider “grabbing a dildo” and “f*cking himself.”
In a discussion thread posted to Facebook last year, Basye appeared to tell a female she “must be loving on Stephen Webber’s bullsh*t” before suggesting the reason the Democratic politician was not interested in receiving oral sex from her was because Webber was gay.
It is unclear how Basye will fare in the election. Despite his homophobic rhetoric, he was a popular figure in his local community while serving in the state House. He easily won four terms representing District 47 in central Missouri, never finishing with under 56 percent of the vote and increasing his percentage of votes every year. He was prevented from running for a fifth term due to term limits.
In a recent setback, however, he failed to make the final ballot last year for a seat on the Columbia School Board, finishing fourth. He responded to gleeful detractors on social media in typical style, using a series of profane insults.
