Anti-lgbtq+ Maga Pastor Called Pride Flags “disgusting.” He Just Pled Guilty To Child Sex Offenses.

Anti-LGBTQ+ MAGA pastor Silas H. Shelton of Wilmington, Ohio, pleaded guilty on Monday to three third-degree felony counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. He now faces anywhere from 3 to 15 years in prison.

The abuse started in 2019 and involved a 14- or 15-year-old girl who belonged to Shelton’s congregation at Blanchester Community Church. The abuse reportedly did not stop until a few months before his arrest last October 16.

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His plea deal dismissed eight remaining charges in the 12-count indictment, which originally included charges of arson, gross sexual imposition, rape, and sexual battery, the Wilmington News Journal reported. He made the deal on Monday, before the scheduled start of his five-day trial.

The plea deal would also require him to register in person as a Tier II sex offender every 180 days for 25 years.

Last October 16, police in Wilmington, Ohio, announced his arrest for “Rape, Sexual Battery, Unlawful Sexual Conduct with a Minor, and Gross Sexual Imposition.” 

During the summer of 2019, his victim lived in Wilmington with her parents, and Shelton later asked the victim to start working for his construction business. “He would pick her up most weekdays and return her home on days that typically no one was present,” Assistant Prosecutor Andrew Sievers said.

Sievers had sexual conduct with the minor while returning from a work site, as well as at Cowan Lake and the Holiday Inn at the Roberts Center, the indictment said.

A probable cause statement from the detective involved in the case reportedly said that Shelton and his victim had a complex dynamic, suggesting that “the young woman felt groomed, trapped, and manipulated due to Shelton’s position as a religious authority,” WLWT5 reported.

In 2023, Shelton – who served as pastor at Blanchester Community Church – spoke before the Little Miami Local School District board to decry the availability of LGBTQ+ books in schools. He was specifically angry that his 12-year-old daughter had seen the LGBTQ+ graphic novel series Heartstopper by Alice Oseman available at a book fair.

“I don’t think kids should ever question their sexuality. I don’t think kids should ever explore their sexuality. I don’t think any of that stuff ever ought to be in our school,” Shelton said. “But [my daughter] come home asking me why certain books were in that book fair, which were pertaining to books of gay. One of them was Heartstopper, which is where a gay boy pressures a straight kid into kissing him.”

“I don’t understand why we have this kind of stuff in our libraries, in our book fairs,” he said.

He spoke about the “health risk of being gay” and claimed the biggest risk is mental health. “We worry about drugs, we worry about alcohol… but we’re not allowed to talk about the health risks of kids being gay.”

He also called Pride flags in classrooms “a disgusting display” and said they caused division.

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