I want to start off by saying I really have grown to hate candidate diaries and I'm not thrilled to have penned this one, but I feel the need to get this off of my chest.
Much has been made around these parts about Barack Obama and whether or not he truly supports LGBT equality. There have been claims about how he sponsored legislation in Illinois that was supportive of LGBT equality, however that claim has been thoroughly debunked.
During his short single term in the Senate as the Freshman Senator from Illinois, he managed to equal rival Hillary Clinton's record as far as the Human Rights Campaign is concerned - both scored 89%. Not bad, but there is at least one candidate running for President who scores higher.
I'm not a single issue voter. I care about more than just LGBT issues. I care deeply about the economy. As one of the 47 million citizens of this country who lack basic health insurance, I'm even more deeply concerned about healthcare reform. We need immigration reform, but the way it's being approached is the wrong way and will hurt us. As a veteran I care about the endless wars in the Middle East and Bush's empire building adventures. However as a gay man and the fact there are people out there who would rather see us put in concentration camps and killed candidate positions on LGBT issues is an important part of my decision as to who to support. I don't expect perfection, but I'm certainly not going to vote for someone who I don't think I can trust to be honest on the issue.
I can respect a candidate like Edwards who has never fully embraced LGBT issues and he seems to shy away from them. He's been consistent for the most part and when his positions on the issue have shifted it has shifted towards a greater degree of tolerance and equality. Hillary Clinton on the other hand has promised much and has delivered little in the way of leadership on LGBT issues.
I want to like Obama. I really, really do. I felt as a mixed-race man he'd understand what it feels like to be the target of hatred and discrimination. I know he's tasted it in his life and that gave me the audacity to hope he'd stand up to the elements of intolerance in this country. I contributed to his campaign when he froze out Faux News. I defended him on this very site when the MySpace flap happened.
That all changed in October of last year. Obama decided he needed to do something to keep from being embarrassed if he lost the African American vote to Hillary Clinton. After all her husband Bill has the distinction of being called America's first Black President. To say the African American community loves the Clintons is an understatement and Bill cemented it by putting his post-presidential office in what has been historically known as the capital of the African American community in the US, Harlem. So yes, this was cause for worry for Obama's campaign.
So what does Obama do? He decides to enlist African American gospel singers and put them on tour in South Carolina, an important primary state for Democrats. Now before I continue, I want this to sink in a bit. Here is a man running for a constitutionally mandated secular office producing Christian gospel concerts in an effort to woo voters. That alone is a red flag.
However, that's not what caused me to drop Obama from consideration. There's more. Just a little under couple of months after appearing on LOGO and telling us where he stands on LGBT issues, he signs up Donnie McClurkin, a virulently anti-gay "ex-gay" closet case on the down-low gospel singer/minister who built his ministry on the foundation that he "prayed away the gay" to headline and emcee his "Embrace the Change" tour. It wasn't just one concert as some here have claimed, it was several concerts.
The Human Rights Campaign told him it was a bad idea to put McClurkin front and center before the tour started, so you'd think Obama would listen, right? Wrong! Instead of dropping McClurkin or relegating him to a less prominent role, Obama decides to bring in an openly gay caucasian pastor to open the show for "balance." Not only that, he rejected two gay African American ministers and two gay inclusive African American ministers. By doing so he re-affirmed a common belief among culturally conservative evangelical African Americans that being gay is a white thing and still a sin.
Several sources inside and outside the campaign confirm the names of TWO openly gay black pastors suggested by the National Black Justice Coalition and the Human Rights Campaign were rejected in favor of Rev. Sidden. Those names are: Bishop Yvette Flunder, an outstanding pastor and orator from San Francisco and Bishop Tonyia Rawls of Unity Fellowship in North Carolina. In addition, Bishop Carlton Pearson of Oklahoma, whose inclusive ministry welcomes the LGBT community, was also rejected. A campaign source says Rev. Michael Eric Dyson , the so-called hip-hop intellectual, reportedly volunteered and was also rejected. Dyson is a prominent Obama supporter and very popular in hip-hop and with youth.
"We decided to go with someone local," says our source in the Obama campaign, who expressed concerns around finding a "local" gay pastor in Obama's own United Church of Christ. Bishop Flunder is affiliated with the UCC, but, there was no such concern around Hezekiah Walker and Donnie McClurkin who are in the Pentecostal Church.
Furthermore in the Advocate Obama attempted to mislead people by saying he was unaware of McClurkin's background and that it was basically an unfortunate vetting accident. Excuse me? How could he NOT know? When you have HRC knocking on your door going, "Um Barack, can we talk to you about Donnie McClurkin? We don't think it's a good idea and here's why..." it pushes your credibility past the breaking point.
That's when Obama lost me. I decided at that point he was no longer qualified for consideration for my vote. Today I was given a slight glimmer of hope that I may reconsider when Obama seemed to do the right thing and called African American evangelicals on their lack of tolerance for LGBT people, however that glimmer has faded. Why? because yet another culturally conservative African American minister Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell will be campaigning in support of Barack Obama.
For those of you who are unaware of who Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell is, he is a local African American leader in Houston's African American community and pastor of Windsor Village United Methodist Church. He is a Bush supporter and participated in both of Bush's inaugurations. He even went so far as to call Bush and tell him he was campaigning for Obama. The capper that nestled among the many different ministries at Windsor Village United Methodist Church is Metatonia Ministry, "a program created to provide Christ Centered instruction for those seeking freedom from homosexuality, lesbianism, prostitution, sex addiction and other habitual sins."
The goal of the program is to provide:
- Christian Coaching.
- Support groups for ex-gays and those in the process of coming out of homosexuality.
- Educational workshops.
- Information for parents, family and friends.
Now granted Obama may not have invited Caldwell to join his campaign, but everyone knows the old saying about the company you keep...
Hat tip to Pam Spaulding at Pam's House Blend.