OBAMA RESPONDS TO MCCLURKIN'S VIEWS AND TO HOMOPHOBIA!

[GlendaleMan2007]

Bararck Obama: "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. I have consistently spoken directly to African-American religious leaders about the need to overcome the homophobia that persists in some parts our community so that we can confront issues like HIV/AIDS and broaden the reach of equal rights in this country.

I strongly believe that African Americans and the 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."

Those of you who are spouting off about Obama should actually go to his website instead of dwelling in your current state of ignorance!

And by the way, Hillary ENDORSES homophobic Southern democrats! Obama doesn't do that!

[avrdream]

1. I believe we have already dissected this quote from Barack...

and concluded that he said it before McClurkin did his Gospel tour and before he also said that the campaign got what it needed from McClurkin's gig.

Other DUers with better memories and more time to look this shit up will tell you that.

Find a date on that quote....

[GlendaleMan2007]

2. So basically you are just trusting "other duers"...

instead of doing your homework? The original DUer who posted this said it was in response to a letter he wrote after the gospel tour.

[avrdream]

3. I'm certainly trusting them more than you.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Jamastiene]

15. Lost? Directions: Click the picture that looks like what you see in your mirror to go back home.

[LostinVA]

25. hahahaha

[Ediacara]

4. "And so I strongly disagree with Reverend McClurkin's views... yet am totally OK with him...

...headlining an event for me."

When did this stop being about Obama and start being about Hillary? Jesus Christ on a cracker!

[GlendaleMan2007]

6. It started being about Hillary because she courts and continues to court the exact same type of ...

people and doesn't disavow them and takes money from them, unlike Barack. Oh and by the way, Barack and Hillary are running against one another, did you notice?

[Ediacara]

8. I never said Hillary was an angel, but Obama's speechifying about how he loves the gays..

just rings empty when he hires homophobes. You're using the tactics of a five year old, "I did bad, but she did bad also, so I didn't do bad!"

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[oasis]

7. As one Obama poster put it "It's a complex issue". Translation:

Barack gets a pass.:eyes:

[FrenchieCat]

9. Is this what this is.....a pass?

Could have fooled me!

Seems more like an impass, and really exaggerated out of all proportion.....

[Ediacara]

12. So what would happen if I, a gay man, ran for president

And to pander to a group of conservatives, I hired David Duke to headline an event for me.

And what if I announced this a week in advance and I got a great deal of flack for it.

And what if I said, "well I disagree with what he says, but I believe in uniting people, so I'm keeping him on."

And what if the flack continued and the criticism increased.

And what if, in a last ditch effort, I hire Samuel L Jackson to appear on stage with Duke.

Do you think that I would have a career in politics?

Do you think the outrage would be exaggerated?

Why the fuck should Obama not be criticized for doing the same thing?

[FrenchieCat]

13. I think that there is criticism and then there is over the top criticism....

while Iran and Iraq war votes don't seem to matter.

If Obama is sitting in a Black church telling them that they need to change in respect to their attitude towards Gays...then I think that it is a good thing; this building a bridge.

But you can feel how you want. I just think that it overkill.

Excerpt of his speech today at King's church:

For most of this country's history, we in the African-American community have been at the receiving end of man's inhumanity to man. And all of us understand intimately the insidious role that race still sometimes plays – on the job, in the schools, in our health care system, and in our criminal justice system.

And yet, if we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that none of our hands are entirely clean. If we're honest with ourselves, we'll acknowledge that our own community has not always been true to King's vision of a beloved community.

We have scorned our gay brothers and sisters instead of embracing them. The scourge of anti-Semitism has, at times, revealed itself in our community. For too long, some of us have seen immigrants as competitors for jobs instead of companions in the fight for opportunity.

Every day, our politics fuels and exploits this kind of division across all races and regions; across gender and party. It is played out on television. It is sensationalized by the media. And last week, it even crept into the campaign for President, with charges and counter-charges that served to obscure the issues instead of illuminating the critical choices we face as a nation.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/rospars/CGxG9#comments

[Ediacara]

14. So is my comparison over the top?

I'd really like to know, because if I actually did that, I would have no career in politics. Why is it that Obama is seen as the great unifying hope when he gives quarter to bigots?

[cloudythescribbler]

20. The Obama-bashers couldn't care less what Obama said at Ebenezer -- they just want to milk an ...

episode in the campaign for all it's worth. OF COURSE, they protestate that it is all about concern for LGBT rights -- not a single one would EVER admit otherwise. And yet, as other threads have noted in more detail, this approach does NO good for the cause it supposedly serves (and has some to vouch for, of course, as does Trent Lott, for goodness sakes).

One particular analogy is to compare ANY anti-gay sentiment (eg McClurkin) to the KKK, with the latter's history of over a century of organized violence and murder, rather than comparing it more generally to RACISM (apples to apples, and oranges to oranges), eg Pat Moynihan or even the race baiting of the Clinton campaign!

[hulklogan]

21. Tell these people that there is no organized campaign of violence and murder against GLBT Americans

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_against_LGBT_people

[cloudythescribbler]

22. You are comparing apples to oranges. Explanation:

All KKK violence against blacks could be said to stem from "racism". But "racism" is a concept that covers many things (MANY would include equating the KKK w/ McClurkin to be "racist" also). But that doesn't mean that ANY instance of "racism" or of perceived racism, eg Pat Moynihan, who was called out by Dr King and then went on to peddle the same ideas after King's assassination. The KKK is a SPECIFIC organization with a history of ORGANIZED VIOLENCE BY THAT ORGANIZATION.

There are no doubt, instances of organized gangs and others who have committed heinous acts of violence against gays. (Note that the murder of Matthew Shepard, as far as we know, was the relatively "spontaneous" act of two young men and NOT the product of some organization devoted to such violence as a central practice, like the KKK is).

THEREFORE, to equate the KKK to McClurkin, simply by invoking the fact that there IS INDEED a lot of violence against gays, and indeed if one were to cite evidence of linkages between the inspiration SPECIFICALLY of some sort of evangelical Christianity OF THAT VIOLENCE is fatuous reasoning. (Much as Church-preached antisemitism cultivated a climate in Europe favorable to the Nazi holocaust -- that does NOT equate Pope Pius XII with the Nazi Party or even with lesser known anti-semitic organizations)

The logic used in the regularly invoked analogy of McClurkin to an operative of the KKK (eg David Duke) is FALSE. What organization is McClurkin himself linked to that is comparable to the KKK? ANY ministry that seeks the "cure" gays? Just to say something is not the KKK is not to praise it or minimize its evil, merely to place it in SOME kind of meaningful historical perspective. This is what the swarms of Obama bashers harping endlessly on the McClurkin affair, dismissing ANY AND ALL criticisms as telling them just to 'get over it' regarding homophobia, consistently fail to do. They evince NO interest in what Obama has said about gay rights or about Obama's overall record, or about his speech at Ebenezer or about the concrete specifics of the McClurkin situation. Instead its all just bash-Obama, bash-Obama, etc. Nothing new or even enlightening, nothing really responding to the many concrete criticisms that have been made, just a large chorus repeating the same memes over and over again.

[GlendaleMan2007]

11. Why are you...

shifting the discussion to what some poster put instead of what Barack said himself?

[xchrom]

16. barack also defended mcclurkin saying that he was

not trying to appeal to all gay folk just those that hate themselves so much they would use the anti-gay nutcases to help{hurt themsleves is far more accurate} ''cure'' themselves.

also widely reported on du.

barack also thinks lgbtq folk are animals who could benefit from relationships -- and these relatioships would help stop the discrimination against them.

"Giving them a set of basic rights would allow them to experience their relationship and live their lives in a way that doesn't cause discrimination," Obama said. "I think it is the right balance to strike in this society."
Sources: Chicago Daily Tribune, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

[Perky]

17. would not be reaing a bit into that wuote would you?

[xchrom]

18. no.

[terrya]

19. And yet...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=4133344&mesg_id=4133344

Those words of Obama's, as we sadly can now see, are words. Nothing more.

It's plainly obvious that Obama will accept, again and again and again, the support of those homophobes and agents of hate he allegedly condemns.

[LWolf]

23. I don't see what I'm looking for in your snip.

If there is something he has said that apologizes for allowing someone he so strongly disagrees with to campaign for him, and vows not to allow any more homophobes into his campaign, please post it.

[durrrty libby]

24. The poster has gone to the great beyond.

:evilgrin:

[LWolf]

26. Oops.

I went upthread to check his profile and accidently clicked the green "plus" instead of the profile card. Now he's my "buddy!" :wow:

Off to fix that, lol.