I think a discussion that we need to have about both canidiates is if they are truly "progressive" on social issues. Right now, I want to make the case that Barack Obama has proven that his rhetoric does not match up to his actions on GLBT treatment--let's take a look. His associates with bigots and homophobic people are very disconcerting to me as a LGBT person, and while we certainly aren't the most important lobby, I don't see why triangulating on GLBT issues are important to winning the Democratic primary, especally since Senator Clinton has done so and while she is trailing, I do't think gay issues have much to do with it. Let's take a look:
The original thing that began to concern me about Senator Obama's stance on GLBT issues was his association with noted anti-gay speaker and gay "healer", Rev. Donnie McLurkin. Let's take a look:
http://hillary.connexion.org/newsstory.c fm?id=12346&
This past weekend, the Illinois Democratic senator's presidential campaign announced a three-day, gospel music campaign tour through South Carolina it billed as "Embrace the Courage" featuring four singers - Reverend Donnie McClurkin, Mary Mary (a sister act duo), and Reverend Hezekiah Walker, all prominent in the gospel world. The tour was designed to mark the final days of Obama's "40 Days of Faith and Family" campaign in South Carolina, a critical early primary state.
Moreover, McClurkin is the poster boy for the African-American "ex-gay" movement. He claims that he became homosexual after having been molested by relatives when he was eight and 13, but was "cured" by religion."The gloves are off and if there's going to be a war, there's going to be a war. But it is a war with a purpose," he said on Pat Robertson's "700 Club," according to a 2004 post on John Arovosis' Americablog.com. "I'm not in the mood to play with those who are trying to kill our children."
But it's not only McClurkin whose star presence on the Obama campaign tour is repulsive. Walker (left), another Grammy Award-winner who is the Pentecostal pastor of a Brooklyn mega-church, the Love Fellowship Tabernacle, has been described as "disturbingly and publicly anti-gay" by "hip-hop intellectual" Professor Mark Lamont Hill of Temple University. (Walker likes to call himself the "hip-hop pastor" for having recorded with Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs, a member of his church.)
And the Mary Mary sisters (right) compare gays to murderers and prostitutes. In an interview with Vibe magazine, one of the singers said, "They [Gays] have issues and need somebody to encourage them like everybody else - just like the murderer, just like the one full of pride, just like the prostitute."
So Senator Obama's original tour in South Carolina was headlined by a group of rabid homophobes, who's rhetoric against homosexuality is only matched by people on the far-right. Rev McLurkin's comments are especally disturbing, given the fact that he states that LGBT people want to "kill our children". Scary stuff, right? Are these type of associations permissible for someone who claims to be standing up for progressive values? What if a key vote came up during Obama's Presidency regarding homosexuality? While I can certainly understand pandering to a group, certainly Senator Clinton has not wildly pandered to conservatives by touting associations like the one above. Instead, she marches in a gay pride parade and embraces the gay vote. It just seems that throwing the gays under the bus was not nessesary for the conservative African-American vote that Obama was trying to get here--and to this date, the "progressive" Obama has refused to apologize for bring these homophobes on this tour.
Not convinced yet? Let's go on:
Obama and Newsom
Some may wonder why Gavin Newsom has been strongly supporting Hillary Clinton in what is one of Obama's strongest areas in California, the SF Bay area. In fact, he is one of the few public officials who have endorsed Hillary. Let's take a look why, and take another look into Obama's disturbing refusal to be associated publicly with someone who strongly supports gay marriage:
http://www.bilerico.com/2008/02/obama_is _on_the_down_low_with_the_lgbtq.php
With news outlets reporting that in 2004 Obama asked to not have his picture taken with San Francisco's Mayor Gavin Newsom, because of the Mayor's support of same sex marriage, we must ask ourselves this question about Obama, as Obama challenges us- can he change?"I gave a fund-raiser, at his [Obama's] request at the Waterfront restaurant. And he said to me, he would really appreciate it if he didn't get his photo taken with my mayor. He said he would really not like to have his picture taken with Gavin." former Mayor Willie Brown told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Four years later and a denial from the Obama campaign, Newsom told Reuters, "One of the three Democrats you mentioned as presidential candidates, as God is my witness, will not be photographed with me, will not be in the same room with me, even though I've done fund-raisers for that particular person -- not once, but twice -- because of this issue."
Newsom's a staunch ally to our community. He has neither publicly veered away from photo-ops with us nor from our allies promoting marriage equality.
Mayor Newsom has used his pulpit as Mayor of SF to make a huge issue of legalizing gay marriage in his city and in California, and now Senator Obama refuses to take a picture with him; falling in pattern with his actions regarding McClurkin.
But this really takes the cake. Let's take a look at Barack's association with James Meeks:
http://hillbuzz.blogspot.com/2008/04/oba ma-and-james-meeks-homophobic-pastor.htm l
Chicago, IL -- Just as the dust surrounding Sen. Barack Obama's long-term association with controversial minister Rev. Jeremiah Wright has begun to settle comes new reports of the democratic presidential hopeful's connection to another racially divisive public figure--the stridently homophobic Rev. James T. Meeks, an Illinois state senator who also serves as the pastor of Chicago's 22,000 member strong Salem Baptist Church.Described in a 2004 Chicago Sun Times article as someone Barack Obama regularly seeks out for "spiritual counsel", James Meeks, who will serve as an Obama delegate at the 2008 Democratic convention in Denver, is a long-time political ally to the democratic frontrunner.
A spring 2007 newsletter from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) named Meeks one of the "10 leading black religious voices in the anti-gay movement". The newsletter cites him as both "a key member of Chicago's `Gatekeepers' network, an interracial group of evangelical ministers who strive to erase the division between church and state" and "a stalwart anti-gay activist... [who]... has used his House of Hope mega-church to launch petition drives for the Illinois Family Institute (IFI), a major state-level `family values' pressure group that lauded him last year for leading African Americans in `clearly understanding the threat of gay marriage.'"The SPLC newsletter also noted that, "Meeks and the IFI are partnered with Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council and the Alliance Defense Fund, major anti-gay organizations of the Christian Right. They also are tightly allied with Americans for Truth, an Illinois group that said in a press release last year that `fighting AIDS without talking against homosexuality is like fighting lung cancer without talking against smoking.'"
Funny, I thought that endorsements and guidance from Focus on the Family backed pastors were only saved for GOP operatives, not someone who claims that he wants the gay vote and wants to represent a majority of GLBT Americans for the next 4 years. How, disgusting, I might say. It begs the question: if these are Obama's "spiritual mentors and key endorsers", then what does he truly believe on the issue of GLBT rights, and how does he feel on equality for LGBT on the national level? While Obama's record in the Senate has been OK on GLBT issues, it gives cause to believe that that may change when placed into the magnifying glass that is the Presidency.
GLBT people have something to be concerned about when Senator Obama claims that he will be "fighting for us", yet his political and spiritual connections mirror those of Sam Brownback, Bill Frist, and Rick Santorum. Obama has thrown the gays under the bus multiple times--and not once with an apology about his association with virulent homophobes, not once "Rejecting and denouncing" their gay-hating rhetoric or associations with Focus on the Family.
Let me ask you all this, in closing. If LGBT individuals are supposed to trust the Democrat running for President that he/she will represent their issues and be progressive on them, how can we look at Senator Obama's record with anti-gay speakers and not be deeply concerned over the next 4 years if he is the nominee, especally since he WON'T EVEN GRANT INTERVIEWS TO GLBT PUBLICATIONS? Obama vs. McCain? That's a scary thought, in my mind, for any GLBT person who cares about their representation on a national level.
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