Aug 05, 2005  |  By: KATHERINE VOLIN  | COMMENTS     

Although Rev. Willie Wilson apologized over the weekend for what he described as “intemperate” language about gay people in a July 3 sermon, gay activists said they remain concerned about the extent of his sincerity.

Their looming concern pertains to remarks he made in a written statement, which includes the apology, about lesbianism among black girls.

“Now we add to the equation the fact that our girls, some as young as 10 and 11 years of age, are engaging in same-sex relations,” Wilson, the pastor of Union Temple Baptist Church, said in a four-page, single-spaced statement posted on the church’s Web site on July 30. “This is occurring at an alarming rate all over the nation.”

Wilson went on to say: “It is a problem that is epidemic, endemic and pandemic in the Black community. It is epidemic because it has gotten totally out of hand.”

Gay civil rights advocate Phil Pannell, who has been leading an effort to have black gay men and women included in organizing plans for the 10th anniversary of the Million Man March, which Wilson is leading, responded.

“Well, it’s very clear that it’s a very selective and very qualified type of apology,” he said. “He compounds some of the problems some people had with his sermon.

“It shows that he’s not educated in this area, he’s not sensitive in this area,” he added, “and he really should just cease making pronouncements, because he hasn’t made the situation any better.”

Wilson still refuses to meet with Pannell and other black gay leaders in D.C., who want to help organize the Millions More Movement, the name of the10th anniversary commemoration.

Wilson was strongly criticized in recent weeks after offensive comments he made about gays and women during a July 3 sermon were publicized. During the sermon, he described sexual acts he said gay people engage in and implied that successful black women were having a detrimental impact on black men.

“In retrospect, I admit that some of the language I used in my sermon was intemperate and offended some of my brothers and sisters,” Wilson said in the written statement. “To any and all whom I offended because of this language, I sincerely and most profusely apologize.”

Wilson first apologized for his remarks late Friday, July 29, in a telephone interview with the Washington Post. He has not returned Blade calls to comment.

Pannell and others remain concerned about Wilson’s willingness to work with them in his role as national executive director of the Millions More Movement, which was founded by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, and is slated to take place here in October.

During a planning meeting on Jan. 15, Farrakhan said that gays would be welcome at the Millions More Movement, according to Pannell.

“It is clear that Rev. Wilson’s … statements about sexual orientation have moved from the offensive to the outlandish,” Pannell said of Wilson’s apology. “But yet he won’t meet with the black gay and lesbian community to discuss this. If this lesbianism is now [so] pandemic [that] it’s taken on Biblical proportions, don’t you think he would meet with gays and lesbians?”

Gay author and civil rights advocate Keith Boykin, who lives in New York, said in a written statement: “If Wilson is serious about making amends, he and the Millions More Movement will take immediate action to include black LGBT leaders, groups and organizers in the planning of the Millions More March. And they should invite not one, but at least two black openly LGBT speakers to participate in the march. That’s the least they can do.

“But that’s just the beginning,” Boykin added. “If the Millions More Movement is serious about reaching millions more black people, they should start by repudiating Willie Wilson’s hateful remarks and firing him from his job.”

D.C. gay rights activist Carlene Cheatam, who has been working with Pannell on plans for getting gay people included in the Million Man March commemoration, said she appreciated Wilson’s past work with women but he now needs to focus on the future.

“Today is a new day and he needs to talk to us as though we are part of the family,” she said.

Cheatam also extended a formal invitation for Wilson to attend the black gay community’s next monthly Millions More Movement community meeting in D.C., on Aug. 21.

H. Alexander Robinson, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, a D.C.-based gay civil rights organization founded in 2003, said ...