MRFF Assists Clients in Having Chaplain’s ‘Oh-So-Clever’ Anti-LGTBQ+ Parting Message Removed from VA Facility

January 26, 2024

VA Chaplain Zachary Stephens was the chaplain at the Alaska VA’s Colonel Mary Louise Rasmuson Campus in Anchorage until last October, and although he left this facility several months ago for another VA medical center, his clear contempt for the LGBTQ+ community lived on in Anchorage in the form of his hateful parting message, prominently hanging in a large, glass-covered wall display box in the hallway outside what had been his office.

Chaplain Stephens’ extremely divisive and hateful message appeared to be what he may have thought was being ‘intellectually cute’:

As I depart, I pray you will be

Living the
Gospel, defending it with
Biblical
Truth,
Quietly, (by example) and
Intentionally (by word)
Always

In the same display case with this disgustingly divisive message was a bookmark and sign from evolution denying Ken Ham’s Ark Encounter theme park, both bearing the anti-LGBTQ+ message “THE TRUE MEANING OF THE RAINBOW – GENESIS 9:13.”  Chaplain Stephens vacuous intellectual tantrum appears to have been in response to the generally supportive nature of the Alaska VA Healthcare System towards the LGTBQ+ community.  As reported by MRFF Senior Researcher Chris Rodda in her January 26, 2024 article for the Daily Kos:

It’s hard not to surmise that Chaplain Stephens’s misguided moral imperative to scoff at the LGBTQ+ veteran community in such a visible way in that location just might have been driven by the row of large, VA-approved LGBTQ+-affirming “Pride in Service” posters hanging in the same hallway as his hate-in-a-box.

MRFF President/Founder Mikey Weinstein was contacted via email by one of six clients (three of whom are members of the LGBTQ+ community and five of whom are Christians) requesting assistance and stating, “I cannot stand to have to pass this kind of hate every time I go to the pharmacy.”

After a series of contentious phone calls and e-mails between MRFF’s Mikey Weinstein and an annoyingly apathetic administrator at the facility, who at one point lied and told Mikey that the display had been taken down when a MRFF client who was there checked and found it still up, this self-important administrator grudgingly did his job and removed it, this time sending Mikey a photo as proof.  One MRFF client emailed their account of this successful outcome:

From: (MRFF Client/U.S. Military Veteran’s e-mail address withheld)
Subject: VICTORY
Date: January 24, 2024 at 5:49:38 PM MST
To: Mikey Weinstein <[email protected]>

I reached out for help removing what I saw as a blatant anti-lgbtq sign hanging outside of the Anchorage Alaska VA’s Chaplains office with MRFF. I was contacted the same day incredibly fast by Mr. Weinstein and through his and others at MRFF I found out that I wasn’t alone with my feelings about this homophobic poster in the lobby of the VA medical center. Besides myself there were 5 other Christian veterans along with one Nontheist veteran all seeking the help of MRFF. Two identified as gay and one as bisexual. I finally felt heard about an issue that if I had brought it up would probably be dismissed out of hand or worse open myself up to retaliation. The Anchorage Alaska VA is a special place for me, because without their intervention I’m sure that my life would have ended years ago. I always saw this VA as a welcoming place for all orientations, religions and races so seeing that horrible sign hanging in the VA medical center lobby hit me really hard. Thank you MRFF for being able to listen and step in immediately to help on these issues. You got us the win! These days it is so important to fight for REAL American values.

(MRFF Client/U.S. Military Veteran’s name and all other ID withheld)

As a result of this quick victory, Chris Rodda very effectively pointed out that:

While Chaplain Stephens and the remnants of his hate are now gone from the Alaska VA’s Colonel Mary Louise Rasmuson Campus, this homophobic holy man has not left the VA, and will no doubt bring his “Christian” contempt of the LGBTQ+ community to the veterans at the VA medical center in Salisbury, North Carolina.