Barack Obama Releases Statement on Reverend McClurkin
Yesterday, I posted about Barack Obama's intention to tour South Carolina for three days with a group of gospel singers in an attempt to shore up voting support from the black community in that state. Among them will be gospel singer Donnie McClurkin, a notorious homophobe who performed at the Republican National Convention in 2004, has vowed to battle "the curse of homosexuality," and believes that gays can be turned straight with religious intervention.
Late yesterday, Obama released the following 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 of our community so that we can confront issues like HIV/AIDS and broaden the reach of equal rights in this country. 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."
So does this mean that McClurkin is still part of Obama's gospel tour? If so, I believe he has a big "ex-gay" problem on his hands.
You may have missed...
Barack Obama to Tour with Anti-Gay Gospel Singer [tr]
Obama could replace McClurkin with someone like Susan Werner.
Otherwise he just lost my vote. Not that he cares.
Posted by: Jon-Marc | Oct 23, 2007 12:52:29 PM
Does anyone else find it ironic that the name of the gospel tour is "Embrace the Change"? Hmmmmm, embrace the change, with special guests who think you can will the gay away. Putting one and one together, adds up to 2...
Posted by: Robert Burnsey K | Oct 23, 2007 1:02:23 PM
He's after the black homophobic vote in South Carolina and meanwhile whispering to us that he doesn't agree with his supporters. He calls it "dialog" - I call it pandering.
Well, where's the dialog, Barack? Are you going to confont this guy publicly? Or are you just going to throw us under the bus and figure we won't remember you ran us over? Or is it who cares - there's more bigot votes than there are queer votes?
Who is this Obama, really? The more I know about him, the more uneasy I become. His "faith-based" campaign strategy is a clear signal to the religious right. It should be a signal to us too.
Let's follow his actions. See if he stands up for us in South Carolina or saves that support for the big cities in the north.
Posted by: baliabba | Oct 23, 2007 1:18:28 PM
From O'Bam to BO
how quickly they shoot themselves in the foot clammoring for votes, such as dumb ass move, typical for republicans, but he should be drummed out of the democratic party for this fiasco.
Or does he get a pass because so many people are desperate for a candidate of color?
Posted by: Qjersey | Oct 23, 2007 1:19:36 PM
Barack made a serious misstep with this.
BUT...
I have one genuine question: How is this any different from Hillary actually POSTING endorsements on her website from anti-gay Rev. Harold Mayberry?
From her site:
"Senator Clinton has an excellent concept about how she plans to address issues surrounding crime and education. She described how she has partnered with leaders in New York to create a charter school specifically for African American men and notes that the Allen Cathedral AME Church charter school in Jamaica Queens, New York could be used as a model of how to help educate African American young men. Her mentioning of the school shows that she's aware of outstanding successful examples of education in this country. The way she addressed the need for the federal government to partner with inner cities suggests that she's not just focusing on international issues but that she's concerned with domestic ones - particularly crime and violence in our communities. I want a president who knows how to strike a balance between addressing international and domestic challenges facing this country," said Reverend Dr. Harold R. Mayberry, Senior Pastor of First African Methodist Episcopal Church and Chairperson of Network for Interfaith Action.
She celebrates HIS endorsement, yet I don't recall any outrage. I would think that this would put them on even integritive ground, no?
Posted by: soulbrotha | Oct 23, 2007 1:48:26 PM
Are black people more homophobic than the natural average OR does the media over-focus on black homophobia? I see it on TV all the time -- the religious black person, nobly committed to Jesus, who "doesn't approve of the gay lifestyle". (See Big Brother, Real World, etc.)
The bigger reality is there are tons of homophobes in BOTH parties. Don't assume Democrats are completely on-side. Hold everyone's feet to the fire.
Posted by: Peter | Oct 23, 2007 1:48:57 PM
I doubt if Barack Obama would go on "tour" with someone who promoted segregation. If he insists on continuing this tour with McClurkin he has officially lost my support of his bid for the presidency. I'll switch to Hillary in a second.
Posted by: Philbert | Oct 23, 2007 2:07:24 PM
All of you haters of Obama, you weren't going to vote for him anyhow. He said he is for bringing together friend and foe. So you obviously don't get it.
And besides your voice is not more important than everyone elses.
Posted by: John Connally | Oct 23, 2007 2:14:38 PM
I've said it before months ago on this site and I'll repeat it again. Ever since he visited San Francisco on his book tour(10/25/06)and avoided being photographed with Mayor Gavin Newsom it was obvious that no matter what came out of his charismatic pretty mouth he wasn't REALLY going to fight for equality for GLBT folks. It's been a full year and his actions continue to speak volumes(negatively) about his level of integrity and honesty when it comes to LGBT folks and our issues-he has none. I wish him all the best on getting the bigot vote.
Posted by: SFshawn | Oct 23, 2007 2:20:12 PM
Wow, I've never disagreed so much with the other posters here on Towleroad.
Nothing pisses me off like Christian supremacist anti-gay rhetoric. We should do everything we can to yell the truth back at them at every opportunity. But Obama working with one popular Gospel singer is NOT going to sway my support for him.
Yes, yes, kids, I would like a pro-gay-marriage, 100% pro-equality, secular progressive POTUS, too, but I'm not holding my breath.
As we watch the GOP flush down the toilet because the drag-wearing thrice-divorced mayor of Sin City is about to be their nominee, let's not forget how fragile this American Politics game is.
"Decide" that you "now" hate Obama; fine. But don't think that your vote for Hillary is getting you the President that you want. She's a Christian. She's anti gay-marriage. She panders to homophobic Christians as much as all the Dems do.
Obama's still the best choice for America, period. I'm happy we even got the press release, and I fully believe that he "strongly disagrees" with McClurkin. An instant rejection of Obama because of one stupid event is pretty ignant, IMHO.
Posted by: Jeff in Boystown | Oct 23, 2007 2:56:30 PM
Jeff in Boystown (or anywhere else for that matter) is correct. Hillary's not any better. Her utterly painful and vaguely offensive remark not too long ago, saying "I don't feel no-ways tired" in front of an AME church in the south, is something that makes me want to stab myself in the head in an effort to get it out of my memory.
That doesn't mean we shouldn't call him on it and make a big, loud, messy fuss. It gets old, I know. But we need to keep on it. It's the lesser-of-the-evils thing again, but the evils are getting lesser and lesser with each passing decade. Keep bitching, and keep pushing.
Posted by: Brian | Oct 23, 2007 3:07:30 PM
JEFF,
Very few here actually hate Obama. If they do they're bigger drama queens than I am. I think there's a lot a disappointment about this stupid decision by his campaign staff. Why would you headline some of the biggest anti-gay bigots in Gospel music if you're trying to win the Democratic nomination for president? It just doesn't make sense. You're creating controversy where there was none before. McClurkin is basically a Republican because he hates homos and his own homosexuality! What the fuck is he doing head-lining Obama's tour? Is winning South Carolina your last hope? Well, then you may have lost already, Barack.
In trying to take South Carolina away from Hillary--stop her from capturing the nomination early, Obama's staff did something very very stupid.
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | Oct 23, 2007 3:09:00 PM
Trying to equate Clinton's association with Mayberry with Obama's association with McClurkin is, at best, uninformed, and possibly purposely dishonest.
Yes, both Mayberry and McClurkin have preached that homosexuality is a sin but say they are against discrimination. But trying to equate Mayberry with McClurkin is like trying to equate someone who plays with matches with a convicted arsonist.
Mayberry is a minister with little Oakland, California, pulpit. Google him [without the middle initial] and "gay" and you'll only find about 85 hits, virtually all which connect the two [versus simply appearing on the same page] a replay of a short quote in a 2004 SF "Chronicle" article in which he said he thought homosexuality was a sin but was against a Constitutional amendment. The only Mayberry the average American, Black or White, is likely to have heard of is the one where Andy, Opie, Aunt Bea, and Barney Fife lived.
BUT Google "Donnie McClurkin" and "gay" and you'll get over 58,000 hits. Even eliminating Obama's name from the search, you'll still get nearly 42,000 hits because McClurkin, unlike Mayberry, is a religious star [Star Jones is one of the members of his congregation] who has appeared in several films and national TV programs while making a career out of both his Grammy-award winning singing AND homophobia, from his autobiography to CAMPAIGNING FOR BUSH in Michigan and performing at the 2004 Repug convention to appearing on Pat Robertson's "700 Club." In 2004, he told the "Washington Post" under the headline, "Donnie McClurkin, Ready to Sing Out Against Gay 'Curse'":
"I can't let off. I didn't call myself -- God called me to do what I do. If this is a war, we are willing to fight. Not a war of violence, but a war of purpose." You know, the "holy war" against gays.
So pay little mind to the Hillary Haters who are flooding the Net with the dishonest shell game to try to distract from the fact that Obama fucked up BIG TIME. In fact, two other gospel acts on this tour have a history of gay bashing far worse than anything Mayberry has been documented saying.
BUT, once again, even if the tour continues as planned, and Obama, who can be educated with time, gets the nomination, the rational gay man and woman, anyone who values what's best for our country's and the world's future, will NOT vote for ANY Repug.
Posted by: Leland Frances | Oct 23, 2007 3:26:10 PM
Leland,
what has the popularity of McClurkin and Mayberry got to do with anything? Are you trying to say that Mayberry is "a little less anti-gay" than McClurkin simply because he doesn't believe in a Constitutional amendment. They both consider homosexuality a sin, unnatural and against God, yet they both preach the love of Jesus. They are both hateful hypocrites, regardless of how popular or "quoted" they are.
So the only one shifting shells is you.
Posted by: soulbrotha | Oct 23, 2007 3:52:32 PM
Soulbrotha--you are in denial. Obama fucked us over here, and he knew exactly what he was doing.
Hillary walks the walk with us, and the black minister she chose is a calculatedly mild one. Maybe that says she values gays more than blacks, but I really don't think that conclusion could be drawn.
If Obama had chosen Mayberry rather than McClurkin, this firestorm would not have happened. But he decided to throw us under the bus for a chance at the segment of the black community that subscribes to McClurkin's evil and deluded bigotry.
Posted by: JeffNYC | Oct 23, 2007 4:06:53 PM
People shouldn't use "dialogue" as a verb.
Posted by: Meeg | Oct 23, 2007 4:15:03 PM
Jeff, I'm no Hillary hater (nor do I love her), but if you think that Hillary "walks with us", then you are the one that seems to be in denial.
I am not arguing about the Obama's error. That was the first sentence of my original comment! But what I AM arguing is the knee-jerk reaction to vilify the man, like he is the only candidate to accept endorsements by anti-gay morons. Clearly, he is not.
Posted by: soulbrotha | Oct 23, 2007 4:31:44 PM
Soulbrotha, I'm saying that the difference in NOTORIETY is, repeat IS, important in contrasting the two. If every Democratic candidate for anything from President to dogcatcher performed a litmus test on all the views of all their potential supporters they’d be left with no one but family members supporting them, and not all of those. [And again, by contrast, the Repugs are ASKING FOR, BEGGING FOR support from, PROMISING THE MOON TO the extreme right wing such as at the “Value Voters” read “Homo Haters” convention this past weekend.]
In short, Clinton and her staff are unlikely to have known about the cliched homophobia of a ministerial mouse like Mayberry whom they appear only to be quoting not fucking holding church with throughout a state, but there is no excuse for Obama and his people not to have known of the BIG TIME professional homohater McClurkin. Only someone unwilling to admit that Obama could EVER fuck up can't admit to the HUGE factual difference. Throw in the two other homophobic acts on the tour and that makes "three strikes" and Obama the loser in the game you're playing.
But, like Jesus, I would drop the charges come November 2008 and would STILL endorse/vote for Obama over any Repug for President so get off my case and off your mighty cloud of Obama joy.
Posted by: Leland Frances | Oct 23, 2007 4:37:50 PM
The truth, whether the right wingers and reactionaries among us want to admit it or not, is that both the Republican and the Democratic parties have little to offer but cosmetic reforms aimed at sidetracking us and derailing our fight for full equality.
The Republicans have been sending their attack dogs after us for eight years, and with the endorsement of the Clintons, have enacted antidemocratic DOMA laws in 36 states and the DADT and DOMA into federal law. Dianne Feinstein, Democratic Senator from California joined with Bush supporters in the Senate Judiciary committee to ram though the nomination of bigot judicial candidate Southwick, a Dixiecrat from (you guessed it) Texas and Mississippi. In the house gaybasher Basher Pelosi and quisling Frank rammed through the toothless Democratic Party version of ENDA, effectively gutting it and deliberately depriving transgendered people of equal protection.
Obama, a product of the Chicago machine, is chasing after Hillary Clintons hard won bigot votes; she’s been running around bible in hand ‘dialoging’ with bigots and anti-choice misogynists for the last two years. And he’s serious, his pursuit of Clintons bigot votes is not limited to a tour with McClurkin, he’s also touring with the violently antiGLBT duo Mary Mary. He’s now trailing Clinton by as many as 25 points, depending on the poll.
Although to be truthful he’ll probably never come close to outsleazing Hillary Clinton. One of her biggest fundraisers was hosted by no less than ultraright Faux News’s own Rupert Murdoch, who’s the “neo” in ‘neo-Nazi’. And we shouldn’t omit Norman Hsu, the Hong Kong mysterious ‘businessman’ who gave her $850,000 to play politician with. Unfortunately for Heir Apparent Hillary Hsu was arrested on a fugitive warrant and her association with him was uncovered. She was forced to return Hsu’s money. The didn’t happen with the money she got from the infamous financier and Bush contributor Alan Quasha, whose attachment to Clinton is at least as substantial as Hsu’s - and still concealed, according to Russ Baker and Adam Federman in article in The Nation on October 22nd.
As ‘Deepthroat’ wisely said ‘Follow the Money.” He could have added, and follow the appeasers of bigots. There you’ll find most Democrats and liberal Republicans.
A Republican politician is a baboon in a people suit with a totalitarian christian attached at the hip. A Democratic politician is a Republican in drag.
Posted by: Bill Perdue | Oct 23, 2007 4:39:28 PM
"A Republican politician is a baboon in a people suit with a totalitarian christian attached at the hip. A Democratic politician is a Republican in drag."
And the opinions and distortions and outright lies of Comrade Perdue, the oldest living Fag for Stalin, originate in his colostomy bag.
Posted by: Leland Frances | Oct 23, 2007 4:51:13 PM
Well, you got to admit it, Leland, Bill has a way with words equal to yours.
I'll still vote Democrat, but for the very reason Bill decries: I don't have a choice.
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | Oct 23, 2007 5:08:52 PM
http://pride.barackobama.com/page/content/lgbthome
Go to this link and post away. This discussion need to go beyond Andy's blog! Let's Obama's folks hear from you!
Posted by: busytimmy | Oct 23, 2007 5:17:11 PM
Leland,
Again, I did not, repeat NOT, question the error of Obama or his staff. The question I posed was whether or not Obama' integrity is any less than Hillary's as they both are receiving endorsements from anti-gay ministers. In your original critique, alluded to me being "uninformed", "purposely dishonest" and a "Hillary hater". I am none of these things. I am trying to judge the candidates equally. Is that not how we are suppose to choose the most qualified candidate?
How could you POSSIBLY believe that Hillary and her staff would be "unlikely to have known about the cliched homophobia of a ministerial mouse like Mayberry", when homophobia in the Black churches has been a major issue for years. If that is the case, then who exactly is this "us" that JeffNYC believes that she "walks with"? I believe that Hillary is way more savvy than you give her credit for. Puh-leeze.
I personally don't believe that the popularity of a homo-hater is in direct proportion to the integrity of the candidate who accepts their endorsement. Hatred is hatred in my book. And if you think that's just "playing a game", then that's mighty sad indeed.
Posted by: soulbrotha | Oct 23, 2007 5:17:51 PM
We risk a police raid here if Godwin's law get violated too many times, Bill.
Posted by: anon (gmail.com) | Oct 23, 2007 5:57:59 PM
Sorry PATRICK and support bros for barrack but a GODDAMN PRESS RELEASE is not nor anywhere near "dialogue" will he confront the "rev" on stage will he dialogue for us?
I tell you what get Michael McElroy or the Broadway Inspirational voices up there or ANY" open gay on the stage with Sen. Obama and THEN I will once again consider supporting this panderer.
SAD.
Posted by: MCnNYC | Oct 23, 2007 6:23:04 PM