Weeks after having his investment authority unceremoniously yanked away from him, Mobile County’s treasurer has gyrated back into the news thanks to homophobic comments online and media interviews.

Phil Benson stands by both his viewpoint and his language, which started with a reference to "freaking queers" on the Mobile County Republican Party's Facebook page.

"I grew up in the '50s, that was common verbiage," said Benson, who is in his late 70s. "So I used some '50s terminology. I'm not even sure what contemporary terminology would be, would I just say 'homosexuals' or do I have to spell it all out?"

Benson went on to grouse that the uproar was too far ahead of the next election cycle to do him much good in terms of name recognition.

Benson's latest headlines began with a comment on the Mobile County Republican Party's Facebook page. As reported by WPMI-TV15, the page shared a story about a cake shop caught up in a legal battle over its refusal to make a cake celebrating someone's gender transition. Benson reportedly commented, "This poor guy needs to move to a place he is wanted. Freaking queers have gotten too much sympathy. A real abomination."

The comment was removed, but WPMI's Andrea Ramey reported that Benson doubled down on his comments in a subsequent interview. Benson said he found gay people and rainbow imagery offensive and insisted on a bible reading during the conversation.

Benson told AL.com on Tuesday that he sees the cake-shop case both as a sign of government overreach into private business, and as an example of societal special-interest groups being favored. “It’s not only the gays, the LBG-ABC whatever,” he said. “All groups have gotten just too strong, too powerful.”

Benson scoffed at the idea he’d face any administrative sanction over the flap.

Kathy Eddy, director of public affairs and community services for the Mobile County Commission, said the three members of the commission had made no comment on the situation, and that Commission President Connie Hudson was out of the country and unavailable for comment. Eddy said Benson was an independently elected official.

"The Mobile County Treasurer is elected by voters and is not an employee of the County Commission," Eddy said. "If they want to leave a comment, we're directing them to the treasurer's office."

Eddy said the county does have an anti-harassment policy which applies to administrative, public works and engineering employees.

A leader of Mobile Alabama Pride posted on Facebook Tuesday afternoon that the group found Benson’s comments “inappropriate” and would prefer to engage in a direct dialog leading to common ground. The message from board member Marionna Mendiola read, in full:

As a representative organization of the LGBTQ community of the greater Mobile, Alabama metropolitan area, MobPride does not condone any form or racial, religious, sexual orientation, gender identity, or other types of rhetorical hate speech. While Mr. Benson’s opinions are respected by us, under his First Amendment right to free speech, we find it inappropriate for an elected representative of ALL citizens of Mobile County to voice such hate-orientated opinions.

We welcome Mr. Benson, and any other elected official, to attend one of our meetings to express any concerns they may have so that we can, in the interest of goodwill, grant them the opportunity to engage us directly. We seek no test of will nor to force an opinion on Mr. Benson or anyone else who may share the same views. We only seek the opportunity to be able to defend ourselves through education and productive dialect so that we may be able to meet some common ground for the benefit of all citizens of Mobile County.

Benson’s office is something of an oddity: The vast majority of Alabama’s 67 counties don’t have an elected treasurer, and in the 2012 election Benson’s Republican primary opponent promised to help phase out the office if elected. Benson, who argued it was a check on county spending, prevailed.

Benson's chief responsibility was to handle short-term investment of county money. In April, County Finance Director Dana Foster-Allen raised concerns about his methods: She said that most of the money was invested with two banks, that other banks complained they couldn't even get a meeting with Benson and that the commission was getting no information on the performance of Benson's investments.

Ultimately, commissioners Merceria Ludgood and Connie Hudson supported a revision of the county's investment policy, shifting authority over the investment program to the finance director and a previously inactive investment team. Commissioner Jerry Carl voted against the move.

"For us, this is a matter of having greater, much greater transparency in how these investments are handled," Hudson said at the time. "We don’t get any reports. You have a sole individual who had complete discretion on how investments were being made."

Benson, 77, defended his practices, saying among other things that he likes dealing with bankers face-to-face and that "What kind of folks are they" was a significant factor in his decision-making. He also said he believed that some commissioners were eager to do away with his office altogether.

On Tuesday, Benson said it was business as usual for his office in the wake of the change. In the past he's said he would be open to running again, and he said he hasn't changed his mind.

"My wife thinks I need something to do," he said. "Might as well."

He said he wasn't sure whether the current wave of notoriety would help or hurt -- but he said the timing was off, from a political viewpoint.

“My name needs to be out there a week or two before the election,” he said. “Not a year and a half.”

This story has been updated to clarify limits of a county anti-harassment policy and add response from Mobile Alabama Pride.