Obama Campaign Releases Open Letter From Supporters On Controversial Reverend

[babylonsister]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/10/25/obama-campaign-releases-o_n_69892.html

Obama Campaign Releases Open Letter From Supporters On Controversial Reverend
Michael Roston
October 25, 2007 03:52 PM

Senator Barack Obama's campaign has been struggling with its decision to hold a gospel tour in South Carolina with an anti-homosexual pastor, Donnie McClurkin.

After much criticism from gay rights groups and others, they tried inviting an openly gay minister to appear before McClurkin. But that didn't work - the Human Rights Campaign's Joe Solomonese expressed more disappointment in having the pastor on the stage and only said he hoped Obama "will move forward and facilitate face to face meetings with religious leaders, like Rev. McClurkin, and the GLBT community to confront the issue of homophobia."

Now the senator's campaign is trying to show that he's doing just that. An open letter signed by 16 LGBT and black religious leaders says that Obama is reaching out to bring blacks and homosexuals together. But Obama makes clear that even if he disagrees with African-Americans who are anti-gay, he still wants their votes.

"We believe that Barack Obama is constructing a tent big enough for LGBT Americans who know that their sexual orientation is an innate and treasured part of their being, and for African American ministers and citizens who believe that their religion prevents them from fully embracing their gay brothers and sisters," the letter states. "And if we are to confront our shared challenges we have to join together, build on common ground, and engage in a civil dialogue even when we disagree."

Update: AmericaBlog's John Aravosis, who has been driving this story, reacts to the letter here.

The full letter with its signatories can be read after the jump.

To Whom It May Concern:

As representatives of Barack Obama supporters from the African American religious community and the gay community, we are issuing a statement together for the first time. Our letter addresses the recent issue of Pastor Donnie McClurkin singing at Senator Obama's "Embrace the Change" concert series. In the midst of division, we hope and believe that this is a moment to bring together communities that have been divided for far too long.

A few things are clear.

First, Pastor McClurkin believes and has stated things about sexual orientation that are deeply hurtful and offensive to many Americans, most especially to gay Americans. This cannot and should not be denied.

At the same time, a great many African Americans share Pastor McClurkin's beliefs. This also cannot be ignored.

Finally, we believe that the only way for these two sides to find common ground is to do so together.

Not at arms length. Not in a war of words with press and pundits. Only together.

It is clear that Barack Obama is the only candidate who has made bringing these two often disparate groups together a goal. In gatherings of LGBT Americans and African Americans of faith, Obama has stated that all individuals should be afforded full civil rights regardless of their sexual orientation, and that homophobia must be eradicated in every corner of our nation. If we are to end homophobia and secure full civil rights for gay Americans, then we need an advocate within the Black community like Barack Obama.

At the same time, while Obama has said that he "strongly disagrees" with Pastor McClurkin's comments, he will not exclude from his campaign the many Americans including many in the African American community who believe the same as Pastor McClurkin.

We believe that Barack Obama is constructing a tent big enough for LGBT Americans who know that their sexual orientation is an innate and treasured part of their being, and for African American ministers and citizens who believe that their religion prevents them from fully embracing their gay brothers and sisters. And if we are to confront our shared challenges we have to join together, build on common ground, and engage in a civil dialogue even when we disagree.

We also ask Senator Obama's critics to consider the alternatives. Would we prefer a candidate who ignores the realities in the African American community and cuts off millions of Blacks who believe things offensive to many Americans? Or a panderer who tells African Americans what they want to hear, at the expense of our gay brothers and sisters? Or would we rather stand with Barack Obama, who speaks truth in love to both sides, pulling no punches but foreclosing no opportunities to engage?

We stand with Senator Obama. We stand with him because of the solutions he is proposing for our nation. We stand with him because of his character and his judgment. But the most important reason we stand with him is because today, as he has done all along, Barack Obama is causing us to stand together.

That's the kind of President we need, and we are proud to support him.

Sincerely,

Rev. Dr. Otis Moss, Jr.
Olivet Institutional Baptist Church
Chair, Obama National African American Religious Leaders Working Group
Cleveland, Ohio

Stampp Corbin
Chair, Obama National LGBT Leadership Council
Former Member of Human Rights Campaign Board of Directors
Columbus, Ohio

Tobias Barrington Wolff
Chair, Obama LGBT Policy Committee
Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School
Philadelphia, PA

The Reverend Stephen John Thurston
President
National Baptist Convention of America
Chicago, IL

The Reverend Alvin Love
President
Baptist General State Convention of Illinois, Inc.

Bishop E. Earl McCloud, Jr.
Office of Ecumenical & Urban Affairs
African Methodist Episcopal Church
Atlanta, GA
Steven Latasa-Nicks
President, The Phelon Group, Inc.
Former Human Rights Campaign Board of Governors
New York, NY

Maxim Thorne
Former COO, Human Rights Campaign
Paterson, NJ

Phil Burgess
Former Human Rights Campaign Board of Directors
Chicago, IL

Rev. Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner
Skinner Leadership Institute
Tracy's Landing, MD

Rev. Michael Pfleger
St. Sabina, Chicago

Rev. Edward Taylor
San Jose, CA

The Reverend Robert H. Thompson
Exeter, NH

Sharon Malheiro
LGBT Activist
Des Moines, IA

Hon. Jon Cooper
Majority Leader, Suffolk County (NY) Legislature
Rev. Paul Hobson Sadler, Sr., Pastor
Mt. Zion Congregational UCC

[Bluebear]

1. "Would we prefer a candidate who ignores the realities in the African American community" WTF???

Homophobia is a reality in the African American community so he has to recognize it?

[LoZoccolo]

2. self-delete, responded to the wrong thing

Sorry.

[daninthemoon]

7. Recognize it to deal with it is how I read this. I am hopefully

expecting that Obama will use this unique event to speak on tolerance, acceptance, and other such things that Christ spoke of. Obama has a gift of oratory that may well bring some healing and some actual new thinking to the fundies who have bought into the very un-Christian judgemental bigotry of homophobia.

[KittyWampus]

36. How do you deal with a problem without recognizing it? Or are you happy just bitching about it

But you know, the issue of black homophobia impacts us all in several ways. One way is AIDS.

[Lerkfish]

3. "even if he disagrees with African-Americans who are anti-gay, he still wants their votes."

um. that says a lot, unfortunately.

[Bluebear]

9. It gets worse with every day and new PR move.

[Lerkfish]

11. its like he's completely clueless.

which is difficult to believe, so he must be getting completely bad advice.

:shrug:

at any rate, he's violating the first rule of holes: if you find yourself in one, stop digging.

[Elidor]

29. Apparently, he is.

Clueless, that is. I've never really understood his insistence that if Democrats want electoral victory they must open a dialog with people who believe the earth is 4,000 years old. But now I get it: he's a fucking idiot.

[gateley]

12. Unfortunately, I think you're right. I wish he would have addressed this at

the outset.

[LoZoccolo]

4. .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuhOj2dQTrk

[yardwork]

5. Bigotry wrapped up in "nice" language is still bigotry.

Will Obama be reaching out to the white supremacist community soon, so as not to exclude them from his campaign?

[KittyWampus]

37. Do you think there's any common political ground between Democrats and white supremacist?

You know, on issues like education, health care, unions, foreign policy?

I tend to think of white supremacists as leaning towards Freeperdom.

[TankLV]

46. We're holding our breath at the possiblities!!!

Open mouth - insert foot.

Lather, rinse, repeat...

Stick a fork in Obama - he's done...

[Kagemusha]

6. Good job proving a black candidacy is doomed in the Democratic Party.

Kinda sad to see.

(Edit: I don't mean the original poster, I mean the supporters of Obama quoted and the above replies to the original post.)

[SaveElmer]

8. Death by 1000 cuts...

First, I have no idea why McClurkin hasn't volunteered to take himself off the program. If he were truly interested Obama's welfare you would think he would have done this by now...

Second, every time Obama's camp comes up with a new defense, this letter being the latest, it just fires up the coverage again. Right now, this is not big news in the MSM, but if Obama can't figure a way to move on to something else...it will be...

[Ian David]

10. Why does Obama get to keep the cfrazy godwhack bigot, but John Edwards had to fire his gay blogger?

[gateley]

14. What happened with Edwards' gay blogger? I'm not familiar with that. Thanks. nt

[Ian David]

20. Targeted Blogger Quits Edwards Campaign (Amanda Marcotte )

Targeted Blogger Quits Edwards Campaign (Amanda Marcotte )
Topic started by seriousstan on Feb-12-07 08:47 PM (59 replies)
Last modified by gratuitous on Feb-14-07 08:58 AM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2728138


NYT/AP: Second Blogger Quits Edwards Campaign
Topic started by DeepModem Mom on Feb-14-07 01:07 AM (0 replies)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2730230

[gateley]

26. Thanks for the links. I wasn't paying attention in February. nt

[Sapphocrat]

13. There are so many things wrong with this, I'll address just one.

"Obama has stated that all individuals should be afforded full civil rights regardless of their sexual orientation, and that homophobia must be eradicated in every corner of our nation. If we are to end homophobia and secure full civil rights for gay Americans, then we need an advocate within the Black community like Barack Obama."

Obama does not full support full marriage equality, thus does not support "full civil rights for gay Americans."

Or does he think African-Americans would have "full civil rights" if the anti-miscegenation laws were still in force?

[Bluebear]

19. Obama would have advised civil rights movement not to focus on miscegenation laws.

On same-sex marriage, Obama cited the anti-miscegenation laws of the 1960s to show he understands the concerns of the community — which conversely highlighted his refusal to support legalized gay marriage. Got a bit testy, with a curt asked-and-answered reply, when a questioner tried to pin him down on the subject.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1651787_1651786_1651781,00.html

=====

Barack Obama’s Poisonous “Advice” on Gay Marriage

In early August, at a forum on gay issues, Barack Obama tried to explain his refusal to support gay marriage on the following basis:

According to August 10 Chicago Tribune, Obama noted “that his parents' interracial marriage would have been ‘illegal’ in many Southern states at the time of his birth in 1961.” In fact, interracial couples not only faced outlawing, but harassment and beating; and Black men often faced lynching. The legal banning of interracial marriage sanctioned and gave legitimacy and force to a larger social relation of white supremacy, enforced both by law and rope. And this particular legal ban rested on and reinforced the basic ideological foundation of white supremacy—that Black people were inferior and were to be considered and treated as less than human beings, and that their most intimate relations and choices could be and must be controlled by whites.

But Obama, according to the Tribune, still “said that he would have advised the civil rights movement at the time not to focus on miscegenation laws, an inflammatory issue then. ‘I would have probably said it's less important that we focus on an anti-miscegenation law than we focus on a voting rights law and a non-discrimination and employment law and all the legal rights that are conferred by the state,’ Obama said.”

Well, that WAS what the politicians and capitulationists of those days said. But, fortunately, the masses of people didn’t listen back then.

And the masses shouldn’t listen today, either.

http://www.revcom.us/a/102/obama-en.html

[Sapphocrat]

25. It's easy to be a Monday-morning quarterback, isn't it?

You know, Obama is one month older than I am, and I can just as easily say what I would have "advised the civil rights movement" to do at the time -- we both have the advantage of not having lived through most of the AA civil-rights struggle, and having only vague memories of firehoses on the evening news, to be so wise :sarcasm: now.

And where does Obama get the idea that there's such a world of difference between AA civil rights and LGBT civil rights -- and the (dare I use the word?) audacity to justify keeping LGBT Americans down where black Americans were before 1964?

"In fact, same-sex couples not only face outlawing, but harassment and beating; and LGBT people often face (fill in your choice of murder methods). The legal banning of same-sex marriage sanctions and gives legitimacy and force to a larger social relation of heterosexual supremacy, enforced both by law and (beatings, bashings, murder). And this particular legal ban rests on and reinforces the basic ideological foundation of heterosexual supremacy—that LGBT people are inferior and are to be considered and treated as less than human beings, and that their most intimate relations and choices could be and must be controlled by heterosexuals."

Great links, BB -- bookmarking.

[Bluebear]

15. I called Obama HQ here...they had no idea about this letter,

I explained respectfully why I was not voting for Obama. The campaign worker was dismayed, of course, but even worse had no idea of this letter that the campaign itself released today. This is another horrible move, not even informing your state organizations about things like this before they hit the street.

[bicentennial_baby]

18. Oh wow, that is bad...

Dayum.

[Bluebear]

21. I was embarrassed for her.

She asked me to send her the letter's url lol! Very nice lady, and I hate complaining, but I thought they should know that what is happening in South Carolina is reaching up here.

[cobalt1999]

16. Who is running his campaign!?!

Just dump McClurkin, it's that simple. He brings far more negatives than positives to the campaign. Obama should have stepped up and done this quickly. Now, it's all wishy-washy excuses.

He may be a rookie, but doesn't he have a decent campaign manager? Is he overriding the campaign manager? Who is vetting these people in the first place?

Come on Obama. You want to run the country, show it by running a campaign organization.

[bicentennial_baby]

17. That's my question...

I'll bet Donna Brazile is involved though...Only she can run a campaign this badly.

[FredScuttle]

42. Not as long as this troglodyte is still drawing a breath

[MethuenProgressive]

23. His inexperience is at the forefront of this controvesy.

Becuase, in the end, Obama is running the campaign.

[MethuenProgressive]

22. a great many African Americans [including Obama?] share Pastor McClurkin's beliefs.

"a great many African Americans share Pastor McClurkin's beliefs."

There's a way to influence that, Barack. Reinforce it, or repudiate it, your choice.

[Bluebear]

24. Imagine a white candidate with a confederate flag campaign logo.

Then, after hearing David Duke speak at his fundraiser, releases a letter saying "a great many caucasians share Reverend Duke's beliefs. We cannot afford to ignore those people."

[KittyWampus]

38. David Duke isn't known as a caucasian. He's known as a white supremist. And they don't share

very many similar values as the Left.

So your analogy is inoperable.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

39. Are you saying homophobes share very many similar values as the Left?

Do tell.

[cuke]

49. Well, the black democrats who will likely attend these events

as homophobic as they are, *do* share *some* values with the left. They support the social safety net, minimum wage, labor protections, progressive taxation, etc

You're problem here has nothing to do with their position on Kyle/Lieberman, IWR, Libby, etc. It's with the singing homophobe and Obama.

[sniffa]

54. i didn't that was a category of race

[jefferson_dem]

28. Why did you stop reading the letter?

Miss this part...

"Obama has stated that all individuals should be afforded full civil rights regardless of their sexual orientation, and that homophobia must be eradicated in every corner of our nation. If we are to end homophobia and secure full civil rights for gay Americans, then we need an advocate within the Black community like Barack Obama."

[bicentennial_baby]

30. Well, if he truly supported full civil rights for GLBTs, then

he would also support full marriage rights for them as well.

:puke:

[jefferson_dem]

31. I would like it if all our Dems would take position with pride.

Obama, like Edwards, Hillary, and all but DK fall short.

[Elidor]

32. And as a presidential candidate, I feel the best way to make that happen...

Is to have a fundraiser with a homophobe as the main event.

Weak.

[Bluebear]

33. :nodding:

[IndianaJones]

27. well, that settles it. fire out. nt.

[Maven]

34. Is this Insult #5 or 6?

I've lost count.

How many times can they compound this fuckup?

[Bluebear]

35. I've lost count.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

40. Tomorrow's press release will be: "What part of shut up do you not understand?"

Actually, tomorrows will be a "some of my best frineds..." photo op of Obama putting a rose on Charles Nelson Riley's grave.

The "shut up" memo will come the day after.

[calteacherguy]

47. I thought you were going to put folks like me you disagree with on ignore.

No?

[calteacherguy]

41. Wonderful! A million K&R if I could!!!!!!!! nt

[FredScuttle]

43. "Senator Obama recognizes there are Americans who would love to drag him behind a pickup truck.."

"or burn a cross in his front yard in front of his children. Senator Obama will not exclude from his campaign the many Americans who believe the same. Senator Obama is building a tent big enough to include racists, peckerwoods, Klansmen and any other form of backwoods mouth-breathers who live in fear of anyone darker than Sean Bradley"

And here I thought Muskie's '72 campaign was the free-fall champion

[killbotfactory]

55. That's not a fair analogy

McClurkin has not advocated violence against homosexuals.

[illinoisprogressive]

44. You cannot resolve differences unless you come together and talk it out.

[Colobo]

45. I think the event will be quite positive.

[western mass]

52. Positively Bigot-o-licious!!!

[Bluebear]

50. Yes, let's bring Fred Phelps in too, to "talk it out"

[Maven]

51. Oh really?

Is there some roundtable discussion on GLBT issues that will be part of the concert?

Or is that just a bullshit excuse for Obama to have it both ways, to exploit homophobia with a wink while claiming to care about our rights? I think it's more likely that GLBT people will be silent and unaccounted-for, regardless of Rev. Sidden's presence. Which is exactly how people like Donnie McClurkin and the other bigots performing at his show like us to be.

[AtomicKitten]

48. Well, that list is pretty impressive.

Probably doesn't mitigate the anger some feel, but it is interesting nonetheless.

[Enrique]

53. this is what Obama is all about

it's extraordinary