Sen. Barack Obama, in a conversation with HRC President Joe Solmonese, expressed ‘his regret that the situation had unfolded the way that it had.’ But he stopped short of dumping an anti-gay minister from a campaign stop this weekend. (Photo by Nevada Appeal, Cathleen Allison/AP)
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JOSHUA LYNSEN
Friday, October 26, 2007
Sen. Barack Obama angered some of his gay supporters this week when his presidential campaign refused to drop an anti-gay minister from a fundraising tour, despite protests from the Human Rights Campaign.
Senior members of Obama’s campaign talked Wednesday with a handful of the Illinois senator’s prominent gay donors, according to sources who spoke to the Blade on condition of anonymity. But that meeting — and HRC’s protest — failed to persuade Obama to drop Rev. Donnie McClurkin from the weekend gospel tour event in South Carolina.
Obama, who recently has fallen further behind Democratic frontrunner Sen. Hillary Clinton in polls, instead noted he does not share McClurkin’s views on gay issues.
“I strongly believe that African Americans and the LGBT community must stand together in the fight for equal rights,” Obama said in a statement. “And so I strongly disagree with Rev. McClurkin’s views and will continue to fight for these rights as president of the United States to ensure that America is a country that spreads tolerance instead of division.”
Ben LaBolt, a campaign spokesperson, told the Blade that McClurkin was still scheduled to participate in the tour that begins Friday.
Following a conversation late Wednesday afternoon with Obama, HRC President Joe Solmonese said the senator was committed to finding new ways to unite religious leaders and prominent gay activists.
“I really challenged him,” Solmonese told the Blade. “And he took that challenge very seriously to take this moment and become a bridge builder between communities.”
Solmonese said Obama expressed in the 10-minute call “his regret that the situation had unfolded the way that it had” and noted that an openly gay minister would be part of the tour, but confirmed that McClurkin would remain part of the tour.
The move angered some gays who have supported Obama’s campaign, including Rick Garcia, a longtime gay rights activist who helped start Equality Illinois.
“I thank God that the Rev. Fred Phelps doesn’t have a strong political base to follow him,” Garcia said. “If Rev. Phelps had a strong base, maybe Sen. Obama would hook up with him, as well.”
Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church members have protested at funerals for U.S. servicemen suggesting that they died because the United States supports gay rights.
LaBolt declined to comment on Garcia’s statement, noting that Obama “has been clear” he does not share McClurkin’s views on gay issues.
McClurkin, a Pentecostal minister, acclaimed gospel singer and Grammy Award winner who will perform at the tour’s finale Sunday, has long espoused anti-gay views.
McClurkin claims to be “ex-gay” and has said in numerous interviews and public appearances that he was raped on two separate occasions — at ages 8 and 13 — by male relatives. After 20 years of attraction to other men he attributed to the abuse, McClurkin, who has never married, claims to have overcome homosexuality.
According to HRC, McClurkin in 2003 accused gay Americans of “trying to kill our children” and in 2002 called homosexuality a “curse.”
McClurkin also told the Associated Press this week that he believes gay people need not be gay.
“I don’t believe that it is the intention of God,” he said. “Sexuality, everything is a matter of choice.”
On other occasions, while still holding to the view that homosexuality is sinful, McClurkin has said gays should be entitled to privacy.
Wayne Besen, founder of Truth Wins Out, said Obama should “immediately cut all ties” to McClurkin and call on the reverend to stop disparaging gays.
“Can you imagine for one second if Hillary Clinton or John Edwards had a tour with a country singer who was a white supremacist?” he said. “You can’t tell me that this person wouldn’t be ejected from the stage in a New York minute.”
Some of Obama’s gay supporters agreed that the presidential candidate should distance himself from McClurkin.
“We are known by the company we keep,” Garcia said. “And I think it is unfortunate and not beneficial for Sen. Obama to associate with this anti-gay charlatan.”
Tom Chaderjian, one of the earliest gay supporters of Obama’s presidential campaign, said the move hurt his opinion of Obama.
“It does in a way because someone that’s trying to change politics as usual you think would steer away from someone like that,” he said, “even if it is a good political move in South Carolina.”
Chaderjian, who is vice president of Stonewall Democrats Illinois but emphasized in an interview that he was not speaking on behalf of the organization, said Obama must do more than issue a statement denouncing McClurkin’s gay views.
He said Obama should reaffirm “at the event itself” that he does not support McClurkin’s views.
LaBolt said that Obama was not scheduled to appear at the tour stop where McClurkin is performing. He did not say whether a campaign official would read Obama’s statement on McClurkin in the senator’s absence.
Chaderjian and Garcia said they were disappointed that Obama did not remove McClurkin from the tour.
“Of course I’m displeased,” Garcia said. “Nevertheless, I have to recognize that Sen. Obama has an excellent, excellent record on gay and lesbian issues.”
In an HRC scorecard released earlier this year, Obama supported many gay issues.
Although he was not among the candidates to back gay marriage, Obama joined all other Democrats to support granting gays in state-sanctioned unions the 1,100 federal benefits they lack.
He also joined them in supporting adoption rights and open military service for gays, and increased funding to combat HIV/AIDS.
Garcia said those pledges helped win Obama many gay supporters, but those gays now are concerned about the senator’s ties to McClurkin.
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