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The nation’s biggest gay rights group is trying to force Sen. Barrack Obama (D-Ill.) to cancel presidential campaign event with a controversial preacher who claims he was homosexual but has been cured.
The Human Rights Campaign has expressed its strong reservations to Obama over his campaign-sponsored tour that features gospel singer Donnie McClurkin.
The influential organization, representing a powerful Democratic constituency, let Obama’s campaign know that it would issue a public demand if Obama did not immediately cancel the event, said a person who had been briefed on the exchange.
Obama will not be present on the so-called Embrace the Change Tour, but public denouncement by the Human Rights Campaign could damage him in his quest for the White House.
McClurkin is notorious among gay rights activists for fighting what he calls the “curse of homosexuality,” for saying sexual orientation is a choice, and for claiming that homosexuality can be “cured” by prayer.
Obama has drawn intense fire from gay activists and liberal bloggers in recent days for recruiting McClurkin and other gospel singers for a statewide tour of South Carolina beginning this week.
By threatening to weigh in strongly, Human Rights Campaign has elevated what began as a controversy in the blogosphere into a full-fledged dilemma for Obama’s campaign.
Senior Obama aides had planned to hash the issue out Tuesday evening and discuss it in a conference call with gay supporters advising the campaign at noon Wednesday, said sources in contact with the campaign.
An online posting Monday by John Aravosis, a prominent left-leaning blogger, characterized the growing discontent.
“Funny how Obama is a big supporter of civil rights when blacks are being maligned, but not so much when gays are the victims,” Aravosis wrote on AMERICAblog, one of the most widely-read liberal blogs online. “I really like Obama. I’m from Illinois. But this is despicable.”
Earl Ofari Hutchinson wrote on Huffington Post, another popular liberal blog, that Obama should cancel the “gay bash tour.”
A count done late Tuesday morning found at least 17 political blogs that had sounded off on the flap, ranging from americablog.com, to dailykos.com, to perezhilton.com, a popular celebrity gossip site.
On Monday, Obama issued a statement in an effort to quell the growing uproar but stopped short of canceling the campaign-sponsored tour.
“I strongly believe that African Americans and the [lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT)] community must stand together in the fight for equal rights. And so I strongly disagree with Reverend 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,” Obama stated.
The senator also said that he has “spoken directly to African-American religious leaders about the need to overcome the homophobia that persists” so that together they can confront HIV/AIDS and other issues facing African-Americans.
The statement failed to appease Aravosis, the founder of AMERICAblog, and other activists.
“That’s nice, senator,” he wrote. “You strongly disagree with the bigot who thinks I need to be cured, and who has declared ‘war’ on me and my people…”
One active member of the LGBT community who is supporting Obama said that his e-mail inbox has filled with complaints about the controversy.
“I think Barack Obama is between a rock and hard place and I imagine it will get worse not better over the next 48 hours,” said the supporter who declined to speak on the record because he had not made up his mind whether to criticize Obama publicly. “I never heard about [McClurkin] until 36 hours ago. Someone sent me an e-mail of a blog on the Huffington Post. God bless the Internet. Things spread like wildfire.”
The Obama backer said that better staff work could have avoided the political brouhaha.
“It shouldn’t have happened,” he said. “Someone should have known there was a red flag.”
Jimmy Williams, an openly gay Democratic lobbyist who supports Obama, said the media were unfair to criticize Obama without scrutinizing other candidates.
“If the press is going to hold Barack Obama to a certain level of criticism for his ‘anti-gay’ associates then I hope you would do the same to Sen. [Hillary Rodham] Clinton [D-N.Y.] and the Republican candidates,” he said. “For example, Clinton touts a guy named Harold Mayberry who is an African American minister who has publicly said that homosexuality is comparable to thievery. There are plenty examples.
“Why is the spotlight on Barack?” he said. “Let’s play a fair political game.” |
