William Dannemeyer

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William E. Dannemeyer
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from California's 39th district
In office
January 3, 1979 – January 3, 1993
Preceded byCharles E. Wiggins
Succeeded byEd Royce
Member of the California State Assembly
from the 69th district
In office
January 7, 1963 – January 2, 1967
Preceded byCarley V. Porter
Succeeded byKenneth Cory
In office
December 6, 1976 – November 30, 1978
Preceded byJohn Briggs
Succeeded byRoss Johnson
Personal details
Born
William Edwin Dannemeyer

(1929-09-22)September 22, 1929
Long Beach, California
DiedJuly 9, 2019(2019-07-09) (aged 89)
Thousand Palms, California
Political partyDemocratic (before 1968)
Republican (1968–2019)
Spouses
  • Evelyn
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1955; died 1999)​
  • ​
    (m. 2004)​
Children3
Military service
Branch/service United States Army
Battles/warsKorean War

William Edwin Dannemeyer (September 22, 1929 – July 9, 2019) was a

conservatism
.

Dannemeyer was opposed to

antisemitic conspiracy theories.[4] After leaving office, Dannemeyer expressed extreme antisemitic views, including a claim that Jews were guilty of a plot to legalize the murder of American Christians, as part of a larger conspiracy to establish a New World Order.[5][3][6]

Early life

Dannemeyer was born in

Counter Intelligence Corps during the Korean War
.

Early career

Dannemeyer began practicing law in

Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 United States presidential election
.

Instead of seeking re-election to the Assembly in 1966, he made a failed bid for a seat in the California State Senate. He then became a judge pro tempore of the municipal and superior courts from 1966–1976. In 1968, he appeared on a television show hosted by fellow future Congressman Bob Dornan to announce that he was leaving the Democratic Party to become a Republican. He would win election to the Assembly for a final term in 1976 as a Republican.[3]

Congress

In November 1978, Dannemeyer was elected as a Republican to the United States House of Representatives, and returned for six additional terms. He accumulated a strongly conservative record on the

Energy and Commerce Committees, supporting legislation to suppress illegal immigration,[9] restrict telephone sex lines, and criminalize flag desecration
.

He attempted to block federal funding of

Americans with Disabilities Act.[10]

Dannemeyer was an outspoken critic of

gay sex into the Congressional Record titled "What Homosexuals Do".[11]
In this statement, Dannemeyer said:

... activities peculiar to homosexuality include: Rimming, or one man using his tongue to lick the rectum of another man; golden showers, having one man or men urinate on another man or men; fisting or handballing, which has one man insert his hand and/or part of his arm into another man's rectum; and using what are euphemistically termed "toys" such as one man inserting dildoes, certain vegetables, or lightbulbs up another man's rectum.

He gained national notoriety with his proposals to stop the emerging

gay rights movement. In 1985, Dannemeyer advocated barring persons with AIDS from working in the healthcare industry, stating that there was already "a requirement that nurses who are AIDS victims not work in maternity [wards] because a person with AIDS emits a spore that has been known to cause birth defects."[13] That stated, by 1994, he was open to the AIDS dissent movement and the views of UC Berkeley Professor Peter Duesberg and called for a full-scale Congressional investigation into the HIV = AIDS hypothesis.[14]

In 1992, Dannemeyer did not run for reelection to the United States House of Representatives. Instead, he ran for the Republican nomination for

John F. Seymour
.

Post-Congressional activities

In 1994, Dannemeyer ran for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senator, but lost to Michael Huffington. After leaving public office, he remained a harsh critic of the Clinton administration. During his 1994 campaign for the Senate, Dannemeyer was an early proponent of the Clinton body count conspiracy theory, and sent an alleged list of victims to congressional leadership.[16]

In September 2006, Dannemeyer sent a letter to the California Attorney General and other officials arguing that

Scott Peterson.[17][18]

Dannemeyer expressed strongly

Zionist Jews and their New World Order is exactly the same as it was when Jesus was on earth – to exterminate Christ – and His followers!"[5] He claimed that Congress passed such a law under the guise of honoring a prominent Hasidic rabbi while he was in office. Dannemeyer's son Bruce insisted that his father was not an anti-Semite, as the anti-Jewish sentiments in question were the result of the influence of his father's second wife, Lorraine Day, a known Holocaust denier. Bruce Dannemeyer commented, "He had to agree with it or there would have been hell to pay in the household."[3] The younger Dannemeyer also stated that his father's views on homosexuality originated in his religious upbringing, stating, "He had a great heart and love for people. He said some things that offended a great number of people, but he would not back down from a fight."[19]

William Dannemeyer was honorary national chairman of Citizens For a Better America.[20]

Personal life

William and Evelyn Dannemeyer married in August 1955 and had three children. Evelyn died of cancer on July 31, 1999.[21] Dannemeyer married Lorraine Day in 2004.[3]

Dannemeyer died on July 9, 2019, at the age of 89 in Thousand Palms, California. He had suffered from dementia in his later years.[3][19]

References

  1. ^ Laris, Michael (Apr 8, 2002). "Anti-Tax In Loudoun, Anti-Gay Everywhere; Local Supervisor Leads National Lobbying Effort". The Washington Post. p. 01.
  2. ^ Hines, Cragg (January 31, 1996). "Religious right's support critical in Iowa caucuses". Houston Chronicle. p. 1.
  3. ^
    Orange County Register. Archived
    from the original on July 10, 2019.
  4. ^ Smith, Harrison (July 12, 2019). "William Dannemeyer, California conservative and anti-gay crusader, dies at 89". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 13, 2019. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
  5. ^ a b Dannemeyer, Bill. "Now the government can legally kill Christians". Archived from the original on January 11, 2017.
  6. ^ Vassar, Alex. "Bill Dannemeyer". JoinCalifornia Election Archive.
  7. ^ Lindgren, Kristina (July 6, 1986). "Enter on Stage Right: Crusader Dannemeyer, Defender of His Faith". Los Angeles Times.
  8. ^ "Lutheran Politicians in California". PoliticalGraveyard.com.
  9. ^ "Biography of Former U.S. Congressman Willian Dannemeyer". Archived from the original on April 8, 2005.
  10. ^ "Final Vote Results for Roll Call 123: Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990". U.S. House of Representatives. May 22, 1990.
  11. ^ William Edwin Dannemeyer (CA). "Homosexuality." Congressional Record 135 (1989) pp. 13950-13953. (Text from: Congressional Record (Bound Edition); https://www.congress.gov/101/crecb/1989/06/29/GPO-CRECB-1989-pt10-4-1.pdf, Accessed: December 7, 2023
  12. ^ Stewart, Robert W. (May 15, 1989). "Dannemeyer's AIDS Views Have Moderated Somewhat". Los Angeles Times. p. 3.
  13. ^ Love, Keith (10 December 1985). "GOP Rep. Dannemeyer Focuses on Family, Enters Senate Race". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  14. ISBN 0964647508
    .
  15. ^ Reinhold, Robert (March 15, 1992). "California Republicans Ready for Civil War". The New York Times.
  16. ^ Matthews, Dylan (2019-08-10). "The conspiracy theories about the Clintons and Jeffrey Epstein's death, explained". Vox. Retrieved 2024-03-08.
  17. ^ Dannemeyer, Bill (September 20, 2006). "Letter to Attorney General Bill Lockyer". Archived from the original on February 1, 2017.
  18. ^ Matier, Phillip; Ross, Andrew (October 23, 2006). "Daly at risk of losing seat, new polls say". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved September 15, 2018.
  19. ^ a b Roberts, Sam (July 16, 2019). "William Dannemeyer, California Archconservative, Dies at 89". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 16, 2019. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
  20. ^ Citizens For A Better America
  21. ^ Tran, Tini (August 4, 1999). "Evelyn Dannemeyer, Wife of Ex-Congressman, Dies". Los Angeles Times.

External links

California Assembly
Preceded by California State Assemblyman, 69th District
1963–1967 		Succeeded by
Kenneth Cory
Preceded by California State Assemblyman, 69th District
1976–1978 		Succeeded by
U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from California's 39th congressional district
1979-1993 		Succeeded by
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