Anti-Gay Washington Pastor Ken Hutcherson Doubles Down on NOM Racism Accusations

Anti-Gay Washington Pastor Ken Hutcherson last week suggested NOM and its prominent allies are racist and excluded him from the fight against marriage equality in Washington state.

Said Hutcherson to the Christian Post: "When I knew my involvement was going to generate controversy, I offered to step back and suggested others who were on the front lines do so as well for the sake of unity. They refused, leaving me as the odd man out. If you look at them, they were all the same color with the same moderate views. It just didn't make sense why they would not include a person of color who was willing to fight."

Hutcherson expanded on those allegations in an interview yesterday with Sirius radio host Michelangelo Signorile:

Hutcherson, a former Seattle Seahawks linebacker who has been the leading voice for evangelicals and against gay marriage in Washington, said that NOM sidelined him, and, when asked it if was because of racial bias, he replied, “You want a percentage between 1 and 100? About 90 percent.” He believes NOM's leaders, Brian Brown and Maggie Gallagher, saw him as too extreme. “We had some of the national organizations come in here and they wanted to do it their way,” he explained. "They wanted to choose their leadership. And because of that we had a very big division of unity in the state brought on the national organizations, and we never recovered from that.”

Anti-Gay Pastor Ken Hutcherson Says Equally Anti-Gay NOM Too Much Like The GOP, 'Old And White'

Virulently anti-gay preacher Ken Hutcherson has been increasingly vocal in his disdain of "sissified" discrimination groups that he says are too soft on gay people, including the National Organization for Marriage.

Now Hutcherson is saying that NOM and their prominent allies are racist. From Christian Post.

[Hutcherson went] as far as to accuse some of the outside leadership of racism, and felt they were excluding him because he was African-American.

"When I knew my involvement was going to generate controversy, I offered to step back and suggested others who were on the front lines do so as well for the sake of unity. They refused, leaving me as the odd man out. If you look at them, they were all the same color with the same moderate views. It just didn't make sense why they would not include a person of color who was willing to fight."

"I believe there are conservatives of all colors, but the leadership from NOM, Focus and Mission Public Affairs, wanted to run being a moderate campaign where everyone felt warm and fuzzy. But we know that sin is never satisfied and always wants more. These guys just looked and acted too much like the GOP – old and white."

NOM big-wig Brian Brown called Hutcherson's comments "absurd and reckless" and "not true." "Pastor Hutcherson wanted to work on an initiative and not a referendum which we thought was the best method," Brown claimed.

So what about those cynical attempts to play on racial divides to weaken progressive groups? Was that not racist?

[via Good As You]

Homophobic Pastor Ken Hutcherson Says the 'Sissified Evangeli-fish' of the Right Wing Need to Get Tough Against the Gays

Anti-gay pastor Ken Hutcherson says conservative groups sidelined him and that's why his home state of Washington lost the battle to stop same-sex marriage. In addition to that he is furious that gays stole the rainbow:

I am sick and tired of the homosexuals taking words that God has given us, I am sick and tired of the homosexual community taking our rainbow when God gave us that promise that He would not destroy the earth with water again. We have just become irrelevant, we are just sissified, we are evangeli-fish with no spiritual vertebrae and we need to wake up.

Washington's Leading Anti-Gay Pastor and NOM Ally Ken Hutcherson Wants the Word 'Gay' Back from Gay People

Washington state anti-gay pastor Ken Hutcherson wants the rainbow back too:

"Seriously, I am the gayest guy I know...My frustration is that some groups have taken words and symbols away from the Church and from society in general. When I say I'm 'gay,' what I mean is that I am happy, that I am joyful and that I love people. That is precisely what a Christian ought to be so in my opinion we just need to be as gay as we can. Dan Savage (a pro-gay activist) says he is gay. He's not gay, not anywhere close. Yeah, he may be a homosexual but he certainly doesn't appear to be happy or joyful when he stands up in front of a classroom and uses profane language. Nope, nothing gay about that."

Pastor Ken Hutcherson Says Washington Governor 'Trying to Put a Bullet in the Head' of Marriage: VIDEO

Comparing her to Abraham Lincoln's assassin, pastor Ken Hutcherson, who was recently appointed to lead the charge against Washington state's marriage equality bill, used graphic and violent terms to frame Governor Chris Gregoire's decision to pursue equality there.

"She might as well change her name to John Wilkes Booth because what she’s doing now is trying to put a bullet in the head of one of the greatest traditions that has ever existed and has built our society, and that is marriage between one man and one woman."

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Thousands Expected at Washington Capitol as First Hearings on Marriage Equality Begin

The first hearings over the marriage equality legislation introduced by Governor Chris Gregoire are scheduled for today at Washington's Capitol in Olympia, and thousands on both sides are expected to rally, the Seattle Times reports:

Stand for Marriage Washington — a loosely organized coalition of conservative lawmakers, well-known evangelical pastors, the Tri-City Tea Party and the Constitution Party of Washington — predicts as many as 10,000 people will flood the Capitol for a noontime rally in opposition to gay marriage.

"We have to create among these legislators a belief that they will lose their jobs if they vote to redefine this law," said Joseph Backholm, of Washington Family Policy Institute, a member of the coalition. "We have to convince them to be more afraid of us than of the other side."

Stand for Marriage Washington has appointed longtime equality foe Pastor Ken Hutcherson to lead the charge against the bill. Said Hutcherson: “Stand for Marriage will be in full force in Olympia on January 23. This process by legislators to legalize same sex marriage will not be as easy as they think it will be.”

The legislation is currently just one vote shy of having the votes needed to pass, and the bill's sponsor in the Senate, Ed Murray, D-Seattle, remains unsure of having it. He told the ST that "there's a good chance he'll try to bring the bill up for a floor vote without knowing if he has the necessary 25 votes for passage."

The paper adds that the timeline will be fairly swift:

Once the hearings are over, the bills could move out of committee by Thursday in the Senate and by Jan. 30 in the House. The chairmen of both committees said they have the votes they need. The House bill is also expected to go through the House Ways and Means Committee. It's not clear if the Senate's measure will go through Senate Ways and Means.

Gay-marriage advocates say the earliest the bills could get floor votes would be the first part of February.

NOM has pledged $250,000 in funds to fight marriage equality from happening in Washington state.

I've reposted Governor Gregoire's amazing speech introducing the bill, AFTER THE JUMP...