October 26, 2007

Obama: Gays, Democrats “Hermetically Sealed” From “Faith Community”

Or: Just When You Think He Can’t Step Into It Any Deeper…

Obama Explains Why He’s the Best Candidate for LGBT Americans

When the Obama campaign announced that Donnie McClurkin would be among the featured singers on the presidential candidate’s gospel tour in South Carolina this weekend, it inadvertently ventured into the void between African-American Christians and gays and lesbians.

. . .

For LGBT people, it prompts the question, Weren’t Obama and, by extension, the people who run his campaign versed enough in the pain of the people he calls his “gay brothers and sisters” to see the McClurkin land mine before they rolled over it?

And can Obama really, as he claims, create the “big tent” movement he’s been selling, where voters who vehemently disagree on something as fundamental as what constitutes love put aside their differences to rally around a single candidate?

The Advocate: How did this happen? Was Mr. McClurkin vetted?

Senator Obama: Obviously, not vetted to the extent that people were aware of his attitudes with respect to gay and lesbians, LGBT issues — at least not vetted as well as I would have liked to see.

Having said that, we viewed this simply as an opportunity to have a gospel concert as part of our overall outreach, and since he was singing at a concert along with a number of other artists, as opposed to being a spokesperson for us, probably it didn’t undergo the same kind of vet that someone who was serving as a surrogate for me might have.

Some black gay activists I’ve spoken to say this doesn’t make them question Obama the senator, but it does make them question the campaign — do they really understand the nuances of these issues, are they really sitting down and talking with gay folks, because it seems like this decision came purely through the lens of faith?

Look, these kinds of issues are going to crop up inevitably through the course of campaigns. It’s important to recognize that these are issues that every Democratic candidate who has African-American ministers as supporters may have to confront. It just so happened that it popped up on the screen in this particular instance. But I assure you, I am not the only candidate who’s got a black minister or a white minister who’s supporting them prominently who subscribes to similar views.

Part of the reason that we have had a faith outreach in our campaigns is precisely because I don’t think the LGBT community or the Democratic Party is served by being hermetically sealed from the faith community and not in dialogue with a substantial portion of the electorate, even though we may disagree with them. …

And then he goes on to tell us how “Black folks in South Carolina frequent barbershops and beauty shops…”

Oy vey! How much worse can it get?

“hermetically sealed from the faith community”?! He believes that? Shows how much he knows about the LGBT community (newsflash: there are queer Christians, and lots of them) — and at this point, we don’t think he knows much about the Democratic Party, either.

Nice work, Obama: You’ve not only alienated the LGBT community — you just insulted Christian Democrats!

Posted by: Sapphocrat

Comment on this story