Southern Baptist leader Lonnie Latham was arrested Jan. 3 for allegedly asking an undercover male Oklahoma City police officer for oral sex. (Photo by AP)
Remember the adage that “people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”? Lonnie Latham is only the latest in prominent opponents of gay rights to open themselves up to charges of hypocrisy based upon their own conduct.
ROY COHN
As a tough young lawyer who assisted red-baiting Sen. Joseph McCarthy, Cohn was merciless in rooting out and ruining suspected Communists and gay men in Washington and Hollywood.
But Cohn himself was a gay man who craved pornography and frequently used the services of rent boys. He never acknowledged being gay, despite frequenting gay bars in the 1970s, according to GLBTQ, an online encyclopedia of gay culture. In his later years, he spoke out against New York City’s first gay rights law.
Three times tried and acquitted of conspiracy, bribery and fraud, Cohn was disbarred two months before his 1986 death from AIDS, which he insisted was liver cancer.
JOHN PAULK
Paulk appeared in “ex-gay” ads in national media in 1998 and on the cover of Newsweek with his “ex-lesbian” wife, Anne Paulk. But he was spotted in Mr. P’s, a gay bar in Washington, D.C., in September 2000.
When Paulk was seen in the gay bar, he initially claimed he only entered Mr. P’s to use the restroom. But Paulk later admitted he was seeking the “easy camaraderie” of his former stomping grounds because of the “great deal” of stress in his life.
After Paulk’s gay bar visit, Exodus International, a leading ex-gay organization where Paulk served as board chair, placed him on probation and revoked his voting rights. Six months later, Exodus restored Paulk to the board, although not as chair.
MATTHEW GLAVIN
Glavin led the Atlanta-based Southeastern Legal Foundation from 1994 until he resigned under scandal in October 2000. The conservative public interest law firm battled Atlanta’s domestic partner ordinance and filed a “friend of the court” brief before the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the Boy Scouts of America’s efforts to bar gay scout leaders.
In 2000, Glavin pleaded guilty to public indecency for fondling a male undercover U.S. park ranger in a metro Atlanta park. His attorney said at the time that he entered the plea to spare his family and the legal group from embarrassment.
The ranger who cited Glavin at the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area reported: “Mr. Glavin was masturbating his erect penis through his shorts. Mr. Glavin reached out and fondled my groin in a very sexual and lewd manner.”
MICHAEL JOHNSTON
Johnston appeared with his mother, Frances Johnston, in a controversial print ad under the headline “From innocence to AIDS.” A similar television commercial also appeared in 1998, dubbed “Mom.”
“My son Michael found out the truth — he could walk away from homosexuality. But he found out too late — he has AIDS,” Frances Johnston said in the television commercial. In the ad, Michael Johnston praised his mother for telling him “the truth that set me free.”
Johnston founded Kerusso Ministries and promoted National Coming Out of Homosexuality Day. But in 2003, Johnston shut down Kerusso and the conservative groups he worked with confirmed he had a “moral fall.” A Virginia man alleged he had a recent sexual relationship with Johnston, and that Johnson never revealed his HIV status.
An Oklahoma preacher who vehemently opposed gay rights stepped down from his congregation and the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention after being arrested this month for allegedly asking an undercover male police officer for oral sex.
Lonnie Latham, 60, served as senior pastor of South Tulsa Baptist Church until he left the post following his arrest.
He is an outspoken critic of same-sex marriage who urged gays to turn away from their “sinful, destructive lifestyle.”
But Latham was arrested Jan. 3 outside of a gay hotel and charged by the Oklahoma City district attorney with one count of offering to engage in an act of lewdness, a misdemeanor.
Latham faces up to one year in jail and a $2,500 fine if convicted. He was released on $500 bail on Jan. 4. After being released, Latham told reporters he was set up and was in the area “pastoring to police,” the Associated Press reported.
This week, Latham’s attorney, Mack Martin of Oklahoma City, said he doesn’t believe what Latham is accused of is actually a crime.
“It’s like saying you’re arrested for crossing the street — so what?” Martin said. “This is a major First Amendment issue.”
Martin added he believes media attention to the case pressured the district attorney into charging Latham, who is to be arraigned in early February.
Oklahoma City District Attorney Wes Lane stands by the charge against Latham.
“The law in Oklahoma prohibits an individual from soliciting another to engage in what is considered a lewd act regardless of whether money is sought for or exchanged,” Lane said in a statement.
Looking to ‘have some fun’
On Jan. 3 at about 10 p.m., an undercover police officer said he was followed in his car by Latham, who pulled up alongside him in a parking lot, said he was looking to “have some fun” and asked him to go to his room at the Holiday Inn Express for oral sex, according to the police report filed by the Oklahoma City Police Department.
“Police were working undercover in the area in response to citizen complaints of people flagging down cars and making proposals for sex,” said Capt. Jeffrey Becker, a spokesperson for the department.
Latham was arrested in the parking lot of the Habana Inn, which touts itself as the “Southwest’s Largest Gay Resort Hotel” on its website.
Oklahoma law defines lewdness as “any lascivious, lustful or licentious conduct; the giving or receiving of the body for indiscriminate sexual intercourse, fellatio, cunnilingus, masturbation, anal intercourse, or lascivious, lustful or licentious conduct with any person not his or her spouse; or any act in furtherance of such conduct or any appointment or engagement for prostitution.”
‘Hypocrisy of a messenger’
The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s second largest Christian denomination, is well-known for its stands against gay rights, including an eight-year boycott against the Walt Disney Co. for offering domestic partner benefits.
Latham had served as the Oklahoma representative on the SBC’s executive committee since 2004. He also served as a board member and recording secretary for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma.
In a Jan. 5 resignation letter to the BGCO, posted on the group’s website, Latham cited “personal reasons” for stepping down from his position.
Latham also voluntarily resigned from his leadership position in the Southern Baptist Convention days after his arrest, according to Kenyn Cureton, SBC vice president for convention relations.
Cureton initially told reporters that the SBC would not ask Latham to resign and instead said voluntary resignations are typical when “moral failures” occur.
The SBC holds national meetings in September and February. Had Latham not resigned voluntarily, he likely would have been asked to quit after the upcoming February meeting, Cureton said this week.
“His resignation was entirely voluntarily so it would not have to come to that,” Cureton said. “It’s a tragic set of circumstances, and our heart goes out to Lonnie and his family.”
In a prepared statement, Morris Chapman, president and chief executive officer of the Southern Baptist Convention, denounced Latham’s alleged action.
“The hypocrisy of a messenger does not compromise the integrity of the message,” Chapman said. “The Bible is no less true than it was a week ago or years ago. It continues to offer hope to all who will believe, including Lonnie and the rest of us.”
Don Satterthwaite, spokesperson for the Oklahoma Freedom & Equality Coalition, a gay rights group in the state, expressed sadness rather than anger over Latham’s arrest.
“A lot of people are trapped and can’t be open — that’s the tragedy,” Satterthwaite said.
“I imagine there are a lot of people [like Latham] in the closet in his church, and unfortunately his church is so anti-gay, his life is essentially destroyed. He has to be so closeted. A lot of people are in similar situations, and I worry that’s why so many young people commit suicide,” he said.
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