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Saturday, Aug 30, 2008
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Obama's gospel tour rankles LGBT voters |
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| Obama's gospel tour rankles LGBT voters | |
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by Liz Meyer -
SGN Staff Writer Senator Barack Obama's efforts to gain support from Southern evangelicals, which includes a tour with a controversial gospel singer, has many Gay activists questioning Obama's commitment to the LGBT community. The same week that Republican presidential candidates battled for "Value Votes" at the Family Research Council's Washington Values Voter Summit, the Obama campaign announced it had recruited several gospel acts for a tour in South Carolina this weekend. The most galvanizing figure on this "Embrace the Change" tour is Donnie McClurkin, a Pentecostal minister who sang at the Republican National Convention in 2004 and has gained notoriety for his view that homosexuality is a choice that can be "cured" through prayer. In rhetoric similar to that used by the leaders of the Watchmen on the Walls movement the SGN has written about recently, McClurkin described his efforts to "cure" Gays as a war. "If this is a war, we are willing to fight," McClurkin told the Washington Post in 2004. "Not a war of violence, but a war of purpose." McClurkin says he has "struggled with homosexual demons for 20 years" as a result of being molested by male relatives as a child. However, he maintains he is now straight. Spokespeople for the Obama's campaign initially presented the tour as a way for the candidate simply to appeal to a wider audience. "This is another example of how Barack Obama is defying conventional wisdom about how politics is done and giving new meaning to meeting people at the grassroots level," Joshua DuBois, the campaign's religious affairs director, said in a press release. "This concert tour is going to bring new people into the political process and engage people of faith in an unprecedented way." However, other members of the campaign have since stated that Obama's affiliation with McClurkin places the candidate in a compromising position. One Gay activist involved with the Obama campaign said the situation puts the candidate in a bind, since he risks offending evangelicals in South Carolina if he cancels McClurkin's appearance but could alienate Gay supporters if the performance proceeds as planned, reports the Baltimore Sun. The National Black Justice Coalition, a Gay human rights group, also requested a face-to-face meeting with Sen. Obama to "address the way forward to realizing a truly inclusive America." "Your willingness to share a stage with Rev. Donnie McClurkin is alarming and frankly deeply disappointing. Rev. McClurkin has consistently disparaged Gay men and Lesbians, spread half truths and unproven theories about our lives and has shown a willingness to work with those who would use the rights of Gay Americans as a wedge issue to divide black families for their own cynical political objectives. The fact that Rev. McClurkin uses his religious beliefs to justify bigotry and discrimination is so damaging that it cannot be addressed with a simple media statement no matter how heartfelt or sincere," wrote Alexander Robinson, the executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition. "Donnie McClurkin has said that he is at war with the Gay community, so it seems inconsistent with what the senator has said or even his own history and voting record." Still, the campaign has no plans to drop either the tour or McClurkin, an Obama spokesman said Monday evening. In response to some of the controversy surrounding McClurkin, Obama issued this statement: "I have clearly stated my belief that Gays and Lesbians are our brothers and sisters and should be provided the respect, dignity, and rights of all other citizens. I have consistently spoken directly to African-American religious leaders about the need to overcome the homophobia that persists in some parts our community so that we can confront issues like HIV/AIDS and broaden the reach of equal rights in this country," Obama said in the written statement. "I strongly believe that African Americans and the LGBT community must stand together in the fight for equal rights. And so I strongly disagree with Reverend McClurkin's views and will continue to fight for these rights as President of the United States to ensure that America is a country that spreads tolerance instead of division." In 2006, Obama scored an 89 out of 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign's scorecard gauging the 2008 presidential hopeful's voting records on key issues of importance to the LGBT community. At that time, Obama supported repealing the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (including protections based upon gender identity). However, like all of the other Democratic candidates but Dennis Kucinich, Obama was "dinged" by HRC on the scorecard for his opposition to marriage equality, stating he favored civil unions. In an interview with a Chicago news station in 2004, Obama said, "I'm a Christian. And so, although I try not to have my religious beliefs dominate or determine my political views on this issue, I do believe that tradition, and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman." |
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