An anti-LGBTQ+ Ohio pastor who said it’s not appropriate to discuss sexuality in schools has been arrested for the alleged sexual assault of a child.

On October 16, the Wilmington, Ohio, police department announced the arrest of 48-year-old Silas H. Shelton for “Rape, Sexual Battery, Unlawful Sexual Conduct with a Minor, and Gross Sexual Imposition.” He is currently being held at the Clinton County Adult Detention Center on a two-million-dollar bond.

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The accusations involve a girl who belonged to Shelton’s congregation and was 14 or 15 years old in 2019, when the alleged crimes took place.

A probable cause statement from the detective involved in the case reportedly said the alleged abuse did not stop until a few months ago. “The detective described a complex dynamic, suggesting the young woman felt groomed, trapped and manipulated due to Shelton’s position as a religious authority,” WLWT5 reported.

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Shelton has pleaded not guilty. Police are asking anyone with information about the case to contact Detective Codey Juillerat at 937-382-3833.

In 2023, Shelton – who serves 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 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.

Shelton’s rant led the district to pause all book fairs and form a special committee to screen the books being sold. The district then stopped holding book fairs during the school day, only to reopen them during evening parent-teacher conferences so that kids were supervised by parents while browsing.

“Shelton’s arrest shouldn’t surprise anyone,” wrote independent journalist and atheist activist Hemant Mehta on his blog, The Friendly Atheist. “For decades, men like him have stood at pulpits railing against love, hiding behind the Bible to mask their own bigotry. The louder they scream about protecting children from homosexuality, the more certain you can be that their own hands are unclean.”

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