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Thursday, Aug 28, 2008
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Activists upset that Barack Obama has an 'ex-gay' gospel act backing his campaign should instead appreciate the political irony. |
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| Activists upset that Barack Obama has an 'ex-gay' gospel act backing his campaign should instead appreciate the political irony. | ||
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Big tents open on both sides BY CHRIS CRAIN The presidential candidate who has excited millions with his promise of a "new politics" has found himself mired this week in the same old wedge politics that George Bush and Karl Rove perfected to an artform over the last decade. Barack Obama's fresh-faced appeal to young and independent voters, across race and sexual orientation, has come from his apparent sincerity in aspiring to be "a uniter not a divider," to borrow Bush's biggest campaign whopper of them all, and therefore something of an antidote to eight years of divisiveness - or double that if you count two politically polarized Clinton terms. Along those lines, the Obama campaign planned a "faith and family" statewide tour of South Carolina, an early voting state, that included a number of famous black gospel acts, including Grammy winners Mary Mary and Donnie McClurkin. Their addition was no doubt intended to appeal to the state's large black voting base, which so far has favored rival Hillary Rodham Clinton. But anytime you stretch the tent wide enough, there's going to be a ruckus somewhere inside. In this case, both acts have a bad history on gay issues. The duo Mary Mary compared gays to murderers and prostitutes in a recent magazine interview, apparently all three groups need correction by the Lord. McClurkin is even worse, having claimed he was "cured" through prayer from homosexuality, which he claims was brought on by childhood sexual abuse, to make matters more offensive. Since then, he has said he's "at war" with homosexuality, and he endorsed George Bush in 2004. The reaction from gays and the liberal wing of the party has been swift and angry. Black political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson accused Obama of abandoning his "new politics" with a deliberate attempt to appeal to black church homophobia, taking a page out of the Bush-Rove political playbook. Wayne Besen, who launched Truth Wins Out to continue his long campaign against the "ex-gay" myth, has called on Obama to drop McClurkin from the tour, a sentiment echoed by several prominent black gay bloggers, including Jasymne Cannick. Obama responded by issuing a statement that sharply disagreed with McClurkin's views on homosexuality, even as it stopped short of disinviting him on the tour. "I have clearly stated my belief that gays and lesbians are our brothers and sisters and should be provided the respect, dignity, and rights of all other citizens," said Obama. "I have consistently spoken directly to African-American religious leaders about the need to overcome the homophobia that persists in some parts of our community so that we can confront issues like HIV/AIDS and broaden the reach of equal rights in this country." That probably won't be enough to satisfy Obama's gay and liberal critics, but it ought to be. If Barack Obama has somehow convinced an "ex-gay" gospel singer to join his campaign even while calling him out on his "homophobia," how can that be a bad thing? How bad can it be for the likes of Mary Mary and McClurkin to support someone who is as good on gay issues as any serious presidential candidate in American history? So long as Obama makes clear his differences with McClurkin and Mary Mary on equal rights for gays, as he has done, then he is building the type of broad-based support that is required to win a major party presidential nomination, much less the presidency itself. The choice of McClurkin was unfortunate, and the candidate was not well-served by his staff by his inclusion, but excluding him from the tour at this point would send a divisive message in the other direction, excluding black Christians who disagree with Obama's strong gay rights support. Those who demand ideological purity from candidates should stick with the vanity campaigns of Dennis Kucinich, Ralph Nader and the like. They get exactly what they want, and come Election Day, exactly what they deserve. Keep in mind that the gay rights movement has long argued that the Republican Party should be a true "big tent," open to those who are pro-choice and support gay rights. Rudy Giuliani has the best gay rights record of a leading presidential candidate in the GOP's history. It is in the interest of gays that those views don't blackball him from the nomination because it signals that support for gay rights is within the mainstream of the party. The same is true for the Democratic Party, if not more so. Because the Democrats are so much better on gay rights, it is important for the movement if pro-gay candidates can draw in support even from those who are not gay-supportive or, like McClurkin, blinded by their own personal confusion on the issue. Rather than play gotcha with Obama's gospel tour, we should stay vigilant that the party and the candidate are committed to gay rights, and so far there is no sign of slippage in Obama's statement or in his positions. So we ought to sit back and enjoy the spectacle of a popular "ex-gay" gospel act singing in support of a candidate who favors civil unions, gay workplace protections, hate crime laws and immigration rights, and repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" and the Defense of Marriage Act. Chris Crain is former editor of the Washington Blade and five other gay publications and now edits GayNewsWatch.com. He can be reached via his blog at www.citizencrain.com |
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