Slog News & Arts

Line Out

Music & Nightlife

« Attention Law & Order Junkies | FYI: To Get Straight to Visual... »

Monday, October 22, 2007

Obama and the Anti-Gay Ex-Gay Preacher

posted by on October 22 at 9:36 AM

Barak Obama is touring South Carolina with Pastor Donnie McClurkin, an “ex-gay” preacher and gospel singer. Take it away Joe:

McClurkin, who says he was molested as a child, frequently rails against “the curse of homosexuality.” A choice quote: “There are countless numbers of people who are not happy in this lifestyle and want to be freed from it. They were thrust into homosexuality by neglect, abuse and molestation, and want desperately to live normal lives and one day have a happy home and family.”

Says Earl Ofari Hutchinson at the Huffington Post:

[Obama] also sold himself as a healer and consensus builder. Legions have bought his pitch, and have shelled out millions to bankroll his campaign. But healing and consensus building does not mean sucking up to someone that publicly boasts that he’s in “a war” against gays, and that the aim of his war is to “cure” them. That’s what McClurkin has said. Polls show that more Americans than ever say that they support civil rights for gays, and a torrent of gay themed TV shows present non-stereotypical depictions of gays. But this increased tolerance has not dissipated the hostility that far too many blacks, especially hard core Bible thumping blacks, feel toward gays.”

Says Joe:

If Obama doesn’t back out of touring with McClurkin, it will end what little support I have for his candidacy.

And I agree with him.

RSS icon Comments

1

All part of the proud Liberal tradition and it’s Presidential candidates:
At the outset of his Congressional career in 1976, Gore called homosexuality "abnormal." In 1980 he voted for an amendment prohibiting the Legal Services Corp. from assisting homosexuals whose rights were denied because of their sexual orientation. As a senator, Gore repeatedly backed anti-gay measures devised by Jesse Helms that sought to deny legal protections for gay people, and supported an amendment to use HIV tests to discriminate against immigrants and people seeking health insurance. Even worse, Gore voted with Helms to restore the anti-gay sodomy law in the District of Columbia after the local city council tried to repeal it.
In 1993, Liberman voted to prohibit HIV positive people from immigrating to the United States and to kill a domestic partners law that had passed in the District of Columbia. And, going back to 1989, he voted to prevent schools from using educational materials that "promote homosexuality" or portray homosexuality as "normal, natural, or healthy."
Ralph Nader refused to denounce the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that forbade the federal government from recognizing gay unions. As the bill was snaking its way through Congress, Nader infamously dismissed concern for the rights of gays as mere "gonadal politics" that would be beneath his dignity as a true progressive to comment upon.
Bill Clinton signed DOMA into law and gave us Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (and remember, this was in partnership with Hillary in his “two for the price of one” presidency.)
It seems kind of precocious to protest the norm this late in the movements evolution…

Posted by You_Gotta_Be_Kidding_Me | October 22, 2007 9:52 AM
2

With Dems like these who need repubs...

Posted by Matt from Denver | October 22, 2007 9:52 AM
3

Meh. Fuck 'im.

Posted by John | October 22, 2007 9:55 AM
4

I know, you're just used to typing Dr. Gaster's first name, but the presidential candidate from Illinois' first name is "Barack".

Posted by Jimbo | October 22, 2007 9:55 AM
5

@ 1, you might as well bring up Robert Byrd's onetime Klan membership, just like all the good wingnuts on the other blogs do. What matters is what someone says today.

Posted by Matt from Denver | October 22, 2007 9:56 AM
6

It does raise an interesting question about how Dems are going to balance catering to black voters, who are often homophobic, and catering to gay voters. If Obama only toured with gospel singers who were progay, would black voters, especially in South Carolina, take him seriously?

Posted by keshmeshi | October 22, 2007 9:58 AM
7

@5
Only to a flip flopper.

Posted by You_Gotta_Be_Kidding_Me | October 22, 2007 10:00 AM
8

@1 - It seems "precocious?" Really?

Posted by dvorak | October 22, 2007 10:02 AM
9

Why is it that when you scrape deep enough at any African American political figure, you ultimately find a bigot and/or a homophobe? Perhaps it's an inescapable consequence of thier history, of centuries of victimhood giving rise to an overpowering desire to shit on someone else. Or maybe it's just that they are almost all of them total Christian nutjobs.

Posted by kinaidos | October 22, 2007 10:03 AM
10

My hope is that the gays will not be asked (again!) to sit at the back of the bus and be quiet. It's already happening on Dem blogs like DailyKos, though, with the people pointing out Obama's connection to this guy being called purity trolls. Jesus Christ!

Posted by Michigan Matt | October 22, 2007 10:06 AM
11

I just lost all support for Obama after that. But it does bring out the issue how so many black leaders (and primarily preachers) are so anti-gay. It makes it a little harder to jump up for civil rights for blacks when at the same time many leaders in that justified movement hate the idea of me having equality for being gay.

As Dr King said, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Posted by Just Me | October 22, 2007 10:07 AM
12

@ 7, on this issue "flip flopping" (better known in cases like Gore's as a "change of heart") is quite acceptable.

Posted by Matt from Denver | October 22, 2007 10:08 AM
13

I was wondering how long it was going to take for the gays to be thrown under the bus, again.

Posted by Michael | October 22, 2007 10:11 AM
14

The next Eli poll will be very interesting.

Posted by matthew fisher wilder | October 22, 2007 10:11 AM
15

Particularly seeing how ex-gay groups like Exodus International use ex-gays and ex-gay "testimonies" to influence legislation in the US, Obama's campaign people need to consider backing away from McClurkin as quickly as possible. Perhaps it was an oversight in the midst of a busy campaign, but it can prove a huge misstep if not correctly.

Looking at the stories of ex-gay survivors over at www.beyondexgay.com, one can see the sort of harm ex-gay programs have brought into the lives of the people they purported to help.

Posted by Peterson Toscano | October 22, 2007 10:25 AM
16

wow, that is beyond incredibly disappointing.

Posted by kinkos | October 22, 2007 10:35 AM
17

1. A benefit of a candidate with a longer record like Edwards or Clinton is you have a better chance to see all their warts, and yes, they all have them.

2. IF this turns you off from Obama, if you don't go to your neighborhood Democratic precinct caucus, your opinion and chit chat and slogging are all like trees falling in a forest with no one around to watch.....the caucus is the only place your vote counts. BTW right now Obama would be expected to win.....

Posted by unPC | October 22, 2007 10:40 AM
18

@11

I can understand why you feel that way. As an African American I am not happy with the homophobia of some preachers and people in the community. But every community has its idiots, which is usually found in its leadership and loudmouths. Yet, not supporting civil rights isn't the answer.

Posted by tracy | October 22, 2007 10:54 AM
19

The way I see it, there are two issues here:
#1: Candidates' need to show how God-fearing they are, Republican or Democrat. This makes me ill. I wish just one of them would bring up the fact that we have (or used to have) this great thing called the Constitution that provides for separation of church and state. Personally, I'd like to see the LEAST religious person in office...
Obama is clinging on to an anti-gay religious person to prove his religious credentials, just as many before him have. It's wrong and he should be called out on it.
#2: As brough up by poster @1, candidates changing their votes on major issues. I can accept that people can change their minds...over time. So how a candidate voted 20 or 30 years ago is less important than how they've voted in the last ten or so. Case in point: my father grew up hating gay people, because the only gay people you saw were the "perverts," as he likes to say. Over the years he's seen the error of his ways, and now brings up how wrong the whole gay marriage debate is-that it shouldn't even be an issue and we must extend the same rights to all.

I do care when someone voted a certain way, or made statments, a couple of years ago and is now saying the opposite--a la Mitt Romney. There is a difference between the long term "change of heart" and the short term "pandering." People just need to be smart enough to see the difference. (Which, given Romney's numbers, they are not.)

Posted by Dianna | October 22, 2007 10:58 AM
20

And I agree with him.

AMEN!

Posted by Delane | October 22, 2007 11:04 AM
21

This is misinformation and fearmongering.

1) Donnie McClurckin is not an ex-gay activist. He's a grammy-winning gospel singer who has performed at both the democratic and republican conventions in the past. I don't think he's ever used the word "ex-gay" to describe himself.

2) This is not a "tour", it's 3 campaign events in south carolina.

Unlike you, Dan, I study christian music and media culture extensively, and I knew who Donnie McClurkin was long before this episode. McClurkin is not a bigot. He's a messed-up guy with confused ideas about sexuality based on his messed-up life. But he's NEVER condemned anyone, and hasn't ever pushed anti-gay public policy. To portray him as some anti-gay crusader spreading hate betrays a fundamental ignorance about who he is, what he believes, and about the theological dynamics at work in american cultural politics.

He believes homosexuality is wrong. Big fucking deal. So does half the country.. Yet he's willing to find common ground and work for a candidate that supports legal equality. That's a positive development for american religious politics. If we're going to make some arbitrary litmus test that our candidates can't have anyone who has thus far missed the boat on the morality of homosexuality appear at their campaign stops, we're being impractical, and demanding pandering, excluding half the country.

There are a lot of people who have moral reservations about homosexuality but also oppose discrimination. We can choose either to get them on board and educate them along the way, or we can label them hateful bigots and the conversation ends there. I would hope we would choose pragmatism over self-righteous indignance. Let's not be stupid.

Posted by Kevin Erickson | October 22, 2007 11:13 AM
22

People seem to be missing the key point here. He's on tour with the guy because he booked some gospel singers to back up his speeches.

They weren't picked for their political viewpoints. It's not exactly surprising that the people booking them wouldn't check up to see if they were wing-nuts, politically - they were hiring singers.

That said, I can't think of a good way for him to get out of this, other than just dropping the choir entirely - otherwise it'll just be a big fiasco.

Posted by wench | October 22, 2007 11:14 AM
23

It's extremely pragmatic for Obama to ditch this guy. After all, as an ex-gay, it's only a matter of time until he gets found in a public men's room with a dildo crammed into his ass inside his wetsuit, offering a stocky black man 20 bucks to blow him.

Posted by skweetis | October 22, 2007 11:15 AM
24

Gay-Americans once again are faced with candidates that want their support, but don't support Gay-Americans and their civil rights fight for equality under the law. Silly silly Gay-Americans by in large seem to make no demands and expect no results, ghee...

Posted by Sargon Bighorn | October 22, 2007 11:30 AM
25

@ Kinaidos

You're wrong -- and it's pretty disappointing that you are. Let me name two African American figures who don't (didn't) have a homophobic bone in their bodies: Thurgood Marshall, Myron Thompson.

Oh -- and a third -- Pam Spaulding.

The issue here is that the Obama campaign seems to be engaged in a new kind of "southern strategy" -- using coded homophobic messages to motivate its base.

It's pandering; and it's disgusting.

Posted by Jonathan | October 22, 2007 11:55 AM
26

#24 - Sargon
Gee, don't want to deflate your day of self pity, dear Sargon, but the Democrat Congress just passed a hate crimes bill.

Silly gay Americans, why did they support the Democrats all these years. Maybe because there is a payoff, slow but better that any R's have ever offered.

Silly us in Washington state - took a long time to pass civil rights legislation, but had we waited for the Republicans, it would be another 30 years.

Get a grip, ghee .... and by the way all the leading national Dems. support medical marijuana as well. Two issues for the price of one.

Hilary has been very vehement, under her offices, not users of medical mj will be prosecuted.

Posted by Karla | October 22, 2007 11:57 AM
27

At this point, it's all about Dodd for me anyhow. He's the only candidate with balls.

Posted by Gitai | October 22, 2007 11:57 AM
28

@ wench:

The issue is that the Campaign now knows what kind of back-up speaker it has engaged (if it didn't when it engaged him). And it now knows that there is a problem.

And yet -- silence so far.

That's the problem -- even giving the campaign the benefit of the doubt about hiring McClurkin in the first place.

Posted by jonathan | October 22, 2007 11:58 AM
29

this isn't surprising. i've been unimpressed with pretty much all of obama's responses to gay issues questions. meanwhile, the obama who started his campaign refusing to participate in attack politics has also shifted to attacking the gal who's beating him in most markets, showing how little substance has been in his platform all along.

Posted by Kim | October 22, 2007 12:00 PM
30

@#19, "I'd like to see the LEAST religious person in office..."

Careful, you're asking for Fred or Rudy.

The only god politicians believe in is the one that'll get them elected.

Posted by monkey | October 22, 2007 12:38 PM
31

Two corrections.

1. Donnie McClurkin is one of four performers at one of three gospel concerts.
2. Obama isn’t scheduled to appear at the concerts.

Here is the official information on the Gospel Concerts: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/scembrace

Posted by sdf214 | October 22, 2007 1:35 PM
32

The poor liberal goyium. They demand their leaders start a war and then they whine about the war when is begins to hurt. Then they can't understand why the President isn't pro-gay!

If only politics in America were like Israel. Because Judaism is so pro-gay, pro-military and pro-justice, Israel is like a gay rights heaven. Only in America do you have ignorant Christians like Obama touring with anti-gay singers.

Posted by Issur | October 22, 2007 1:55 PM
33

@25 - Not to mention Ron Sims!

Posted by Levislade | October 22, 2007 2:18 PM
34

So Obama is going to start pandering to the black community for their votes...no big surprise. It's kind of ironic though that he's going after them through their racist tendencies. It's always sad to see the voice of black racism raised so loudly during the election cycle, but especially so loudly towards the gay community. One would think that the black community at large would have learned a lesson from having rights denied them, but instead there is a feeling that they in turn have the "god" given right to now deny them to others. It's a strange and sad world where lessons are never learned. The lesson here is that Obama has just proven himself completely unelectable and unworthy of the office he is seeking.

Posted by Turner | October 22, 2007 3:14 PM
35

@24 "Gay" is not a proper adjective. "Gay" should not be capitalized, except when used as a proper name, such as "Enola Gay," or when at the beginning of a sentence. In this, as in so many things, Jim McGreevy was incorrect.

Capitalizing "lesbian," though, is acceptable, as it relates to the isle of Lesbos, but it would be a bit archaic.

Posted by Gitai | October 22, 2007 3:15 PM
36

After you're done registering your thoughts here, everyone, please let the Obama campaign how you feel. Email, call, talk back to the telemarketers of the Democratic party asking for money. Flex the political muscle, let them know they're losing you (and your dollars). Do something with the outrage.

Posted by andy niable | October 22, 2007 3:39 PM
37

omg! a gospel singer said some gays would rather they were straight! and barack obama is going to hire that gospel singer!

CRUCIFY OBAMA!!!!!!
HE HAS COMMITTED THE UNPARDONABLE SIN!!!
OSTRACIZE MCCLURKIN!!!
FORCE HIM TO STARVE TO DEATH IN AN ABANDONED CAR IN A GARBAGE DUMP!!!!!

Posted by vengeance is mine, saith the liberal | October 22, 2007 4:48 PM
38

Dan Savage is right to demand that Obama renounce any performer that has ever made and anti-gay comment. Hillary Clinton always has pro-gay performers, politicians, and actors around here. Hillary Clinton will immediately make gay marriage legal if elected president.

Also Barak Obama is not supportive enough of Israel. That alone is reason enough not to elect him.

Posted by Issur | October 22, 2007 4:59 PM
39

Dan Savage is right to demand that Obama renounce any performer that has ever made and anti-gay comment.
When elected, HRC will immediately create a House Committee on Anti-Gay Activities. Hearings will be held to purge public life of the anti-gays. Each suspected anti-gay will be asked, "Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Comm... whoops I mean, anti-gay."

Posted by Which Hunt? | October 22, 2007 5:23 PM
40

Hey,
Guess who’s intolerant now?
Pastor McClurin is a beloved gospel singer that was delivered from homosexuality. Why should he become a pariah for sharing his testimonies?
Like the Senator, I have and respect my gay friends but cannot fathom they are so intolerant of anybody that doesn’t agree with their views.
For your information, Pastor McClurin’s position is fully supported by the Holy Bible.

Let the gospel fest continue and thanks to the Senator’s campaign for being brave enough to stand his ground based on principle.
We, the bible believers are also Americans to who the Senator will be a worthy President. Oh, I forgot, the gays make big political donations – who cares, with God and the believers on the side of the Senator, he’ll win not only the nomination but also the presidency - in Jesus name, amen.

Posted by F.Igwealor | October 22, 2007 5:42 PM
41

Jesus H. Fucking Christ. With so many homophobic mouth-breathers wandering around the Slog lately (see "Dumbledore=Gay"), I can't tell if people like F.Igwealor are just ironic smartasses or actual 10lb lumps of intolerant shit in a 5lb bag.

Oh, well, I'll assume the worst:

HEY, DOUCHE: IT'S NOT "INTOLERANT" TO AVOID AND BOYCOTT PEOPLE WHO DENY AN IMMUTABLE PART OF WHO YOU ARE. HOMOPHOBES:LGBT::RACISTS:BLACKS. MORON.

Posted by Big Sven | October 22, 2007 6:26 PM
42

Put more accurately:
MCCLURKIN:LGBT::MICHAELJACKSON:BLACKS

Posted by Judge Mental | October 22, 2007 8:01 PM
43

As a Black QUEER woman I can say that I have experienced much more racism from white gay people than homophobia from Black straight church-goers. For one, I am sick and tired of white gays assuming that Black people are homophobic AND for assuming that all Black people are straight. Really, it is old.

When white gay people say stuff like #6, #9, #11, and #34 said, it just causes rifts and misunderstandings. (I am not saying that all those posters were white gay people). It makes it easier for the Black community to wright off the gay community as a bunch of white racists, bc much of the gay community acts racist and presumes that all gay people are white and all black people are homophobic.

Obama is no more homophobic than any of the other Presidential candidates and definitely less homophobic than Bill "DOMA" Clinton.

What I see is white gay people expecting the Black community to fall over ourselves fighting for white gay people's rights even as white gay people disparage the Black community. Aint I a gay?

Posted by Papayas | October 22, 2007 9:45 PM
44

I completely agree with you Papayas.

This kind of thing comes up in my gender studies classes all the time and it's really annoying. It's always some gay white guy talking (in veiled language) about how homophobic 'the black community' is. Because there is totally a black community, and everyone in it thinks exactly the same thing!

Just like there are no homophobic white people.

Posted by GirlAnachronism | October 23, 2007 7:23 AM
45

There is no such thing as ex-gay, they are straight people who experimented a little then instead of saying something like 'I just didn't enjoy it' they use it as an excuse to attack another because they really didn't understand it. ALL 'ex-gays' are hypocrites, you either are gay or not, there is none of this reforming garbage.

As for Obama, I lost all faith in the government anyhow since we know our votes don't count, gay or straight, but he would be another who should be assassinated. Though all presidents really shouldn't be in a position of power at all. Problem is, we give them too much power. This country was built on revolting against governments like this, and we need to keep being patriots and over throw it now, rebuilding a newer government for a newer age.

The US government is archaic, formed when we had little to no communication, and is therefore obsolete. It isn't true Democracy (we now have the technology to form one) and it isn't a fair government either.

So, untill people in this country are willing to revolt again, you all need to stop complaining about it because you are just supporting everything these politicians do wrong.

Posted by KittenComputerGoddess | October 28, 2007 1:32 PM
46

One last note for ALL christians who think their views are good. Remember, America's FIRST revolt was against the christian churches, and we should never have let any of them back.

Posted by KittenComputerGoddess | October 28, 2007 1:52 PM

Comments Closed

In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 14 days old).