Gay civil rights leaders said they are disappointed that Rev. Willie Wilson, a prominent minister in Washington, D.C., who is leading efforts to organize the Millions More Movement, made anti-gay comments in a recent sermon. In 2000, Wilson held a service at his church to build bridges between gay and straight African Americans. (Photo by Clint Steib)
Except from Rev. Willie Wilson’s sermon on July 3: “… We live in a time when our brothers have been so put down, can’t get a job, lot of the sisters making more money than brothers. And it’s creating problems in families. That’s one of the reasons our families’ breaking up. And that’s one of the reasons many of our women are becoming lesbians. You got to be careful when you say you don’t need no man. I can make it by myself. Well, if you don’t need a man, what’s left? Lesbianism is about to take over our community. I’m talking about young girls. My son in high school last year, trying to go to the prom, he said, ‘Dad, I ain’t got nobody to take to the prom because all the girls in my class are gay. There ain’t but two of them straight and both of them are ugly. I ain’t got nobody to take to the prom.’ Now, can I talk here? I ain’t homophobic, because everybody in here got something wrong with him. Whoever you point at, you can point at your own self. You got something wrong with your life. But when you get down to this thing, women falling down on another woman, strapping yourself up with something, it ain’t real. That thing ain’t got no feeling in it. It ain’t natural. Any time somebody got to slap some grease on your behind, and stick something in you, it’s something wrong with that. Your butt ain’t made for that. [Audience shouts and yells its approval in the background.] You got blood vessels and membranes in your behind. And if you put something unnatural in there, it breaks them all up. No wonder your behind is bleeding. It’s destroying us. Can’t make no connection with a screw and another screw. The Bible says God made them male and female. The Hebrew word "neged," which means complementary nature — there is something unique to man and unique to woman and it takes those two things to complement each other. You can’t make a connection with two screws. It takes a screw and a nut! (shouting).”
An influential D.C. minister is under fire by local gay activists following an anti-gay sermon in which he claimed that, “lesbianism is about to take over our community.”
Rev. Willie Wilson delivered the remarks at Union Temple Baptist Church in Southeast D.C., where he is pastor. Wilson is a former mayoral candidate and serves as executive director of the Millions More Movement march, an effort to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Million Man March.
Efforts by gay civil rights advocates to secure a visible role at the march stalled again this week when excerpts from Wilson’s anti-gay sermon came to light. One lesbian march organizer quickly resigned in protest.
“Sisters making more money than brothers and it’s creating problems in families … that’s one of the reasons many of our women are becoming lesbians,” Wilson said.
The Blade obtained a copy of the sermon, titled “You’ve Got to Fight to Be Free,” which Wilson delivered at Union Temple on July 3.
“Lesbianism is about to take over our community. … I ain’t homophobic because everybody here got something wrong with him,” he said. “But … women falling down on another woman, strapping yourself up with something, it ain’t real. That thing ain’t got no feeling in it. It ain’t natural. Anytime somebody got to slap some grease on your behind and stick something in you, it’s something wrong with that. Your butt ain’t made for that.
“No wonder your behind is bleeding,” he said. “You can’t make no connection with a screw and another screw. The Bible says God made them male and female.”
The congregation can be heard shouting its approval in the background during Wilson’s sermon.
Wilson declined to comment for this story.
Reaction was swift from gay civil rights advocates, several of whom have been organizing monthly community meetings related to being included in the Millions More Movement march, which is to take place in D.C., Oct. 14-16.
Longtime gay rights activist Phil Pannell, one of the most visible and vocal advocates in favor of gay participation in the upcoming event, said he was disappointed when he learned of Wilson’s sermon.
“It’s very difficult to go forth in the community to even try to have a meeting with Rev. Wilson because, with views expressed like that, particularly in the pulpit of the church, it makes it very difficult for the GLBT community to think that any conversation or dialogue regarding inclusion … would be constructive and fruitful,” he said. “I’m quite distressed.”
At a planning meeting held earlier this year at D.C.’s Union Temple Baptist Church, Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader who organized the Million Man March in 1995, told Pannell that black gay people were welcome to take part in all aspects of the event, Pannell said. He also said Wilson invited him to that planning meeting and told him that a gay speaker at the October event might be possible.
But black gays were absent on May 2 when a group of African-American leaders held a news conference in D.C. to announce the Millions More Movement march.
Carlene Cheatam, another longtime gay civil rights advocate who has been spearheading efforts to organize gay participation at the anniversary event in October, agreed with Pannell.
“I’m terribly upset. It is sickening that he said it,” she said. “I’m surprised that that’s how he feels, but it truly shows his colors.
“The reaction in the community has been very dramatic and dynamic. People are very angry,” Cheatam said. “I’m not sure how we will move forward, because there are people who say, ‘I don’t want to have anything to do with that because of him.’ But the movement is bigger than he is.”
The next “GLBT Dinner Meeting about the Millions More Movement” is scheduled to be held from 6 to 9 p.m., Sunday, July 17, at Freedom Fellowship Church, 400 H St., NE. A citywide meeting of the Millions More Movement organizers and supporters is to take place at 6 p.m., Saturday, July 16, at Scripture Cathedral, 810 O St., NW.
Wilson has been pastor at Union Temple for 22 years.
Rick Rosendall, vice president of the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance, said he also was disappointed with Wilson’s anti-gay sermon.
“It is certainly appalling, if not surprising, to hear a self-professed minister of God spewing such hatred from the pulpit of a church,” he said.
Political observers consider Wilson one of the city’s most politically influential ministers. Many of the city’s leaders, including Mayor Anthony Williams, and D.C. Congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, have sought Wilson’s advice on matters related to sections of the city east of the Anacostia River, where Union Temple is located.
In 2000, Williams appointed Wilson to the Board of Trustees of the University of the District of Columbia, and the D.C. Council confirmed the appointment. Two years later, Wilson ran against Williams in the Democratic mayoral primary.
“You would think that such a divisive figure would be treated as persona non grata by the city’s leaders, but this has not been the case,” Rosendall said.
Rev. Dr. Amina Binta, co-chair of one of the Millions More Movement march’s local organizing committees, resigned her post this week, based on Wilson’s comments.
“They’re not serious about allowing us to sit at the table,” she said. “And if they are, I don’t care to eat their fare, because they’re serving up a steady diet of homophobia that is very venomous.”
Rhonda Smith contributed to this report.
The
following comments were posted by our readers and were
not edited by the Washington Blade. We ask that you
treat others with respect; any post deemed offensive will
be removed.
