Rev. Irene Monroe is a Ford Fellow and doctoral candidate at Harvard Divinity School.

In this interview, Irene will discuss her views on LGBT outreach to the African American community, “ex-gay” gospel singer Donnie McClurkin and the efforts of white evangelical politicians to lure black preachers.

One of Monroe’s outreach ministries is writing religion columns. She writes “The Religion Thang,” for In Newsweekly, the largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender newspaper that circulates widely throughout New England, “Faith Matters” for The Advocate Magazine, a national gay & lesbian magazine, and “Queer Take,” for The Witness, a progressive Episcopalian journal.

Her writings have also appeared in the Boston Herald and in the Boston Globe. Her award-winning essay, “Louis Farrakhan’s Ministry of Misogyny and Homophobia”, was greeted with critical acclaim.

Monroe states that her “columns are an interdisciplinary approach drawing on critical race theory, African American , queer and religious studies.” As an religion columnist she try to inform the public of the role religion plays in discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people.

Gospel music on a Sunday afternoon? Sounds like a great idea.

But no city-supported music festival should preach prejudice against youths, nor promote ostracism and family strife in the name of God.

Yet notorious homophobe Donnie McClurkin, who has called gay people “vampires,” is appearing at Boston’s city-funded Gospel Fest on City Hall Plaza, on July 18.

Join the Impact MA, Truth Wins Out, and the Anti-Violence Project of Massachusetts are planning a counter-protest. McClurkin’s bigotry, his hostility toward LGBT people of faith and their families, his unhealthy contempt for sexual honesty, and his harassment of gay and lesbian youths — all are unwelcome in the cradle of liberty.

Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 5 p.m.
Boston City Hall Plaza at Government Center

For more information:

Facebook:
Protest Against Ex-Gay Crusader Donnie McClurkin at Gospelfest

Join the Impact Massachusetts:
http://jointheimpactma.com/

About Donnie McClurkin:

• Raped by uncle at age 8 and by uncle’s son at 13.
• Denies spiritual equality to LGBT people of faith
• Claims to be “saved,” “sanctified,” and “delivered” from homosexuality
• Admits he is still same-sex attracted, comparing his orientation to diabetes: “I don’t eat sugar, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t want sugar.”

What Donnie McClurkin has said and done:

• Incited crowds in Barbados, where homosexuality is illegal
• Says about young lesbians, “They can hide … but there are some evil young hard butch girls.”
• Calls openly gay, well-adjusted young men “broken and feminine.”
• Calls sexual honesty a “curse,” calls gay people “vampires”
• Of fellow gay gospel singer Tonex, McClurkin says, “God did not call young people to such perversion.”
• Projects his lies about his own orientation onto those who live honestly: “Anybody who has a lying problem: They get to the point where they hate having such a lack of character that they make a change.”

City of Boston’s call for Gospelfest performers

Donnie McClurkin — guest of President Obama and speaker for Exodus International — condemns sexual honesty and sissifies LGBT Americans in three recent YouTube videos.

Blogger Rod McCullom reports:

In the first of three disgusting YouTube videos, McClurkin begins his rant against Tonex, the gospel star and minister who recently confirmed his long-rumored sexuality. McClurkin says Tonex is a “perversion” and must pray away the gay: “God did not call young people to such peversion. Society has failed him, his church has failed him … I would be homosexual to this day if Jesus hadn’t delivered.”

McClurkin also rails against against openly gay youth as “broken and feminine”: “I see feminine men, feminine boys, everywhere I go … No, don’t applaud ‘cuz it ain’t funny. It’s because we failed. I see them everywhere.”

McClurkin spoke at a conference for the Church of God in Christ. McCullom points out that the church is notorious for attracting closeted gay black men. “The rabidly anti-gay Church of God in Christ is well-known for attracting many closeted black gay men. COGIC is also embroiled in numerous lawsuits, criminal investigations and internal church investigations around clergy sexual abuse.”

Watch McClurkin preach anger, despair, stubborn prejudice, and hate:

George W. Bush longed to escape his daddy’ shadow, while Barack Obama has turned to shadowy preachers in his long search for a father figure. His filial approach to faith began with Rev. Jeremiah Wright and has now taken a sharp turn right.

The New York Times reports that the president has surrounded himself with a cadre of clerical crackpots known as the “Circle of Five.” These holy men are: Rev. Joel Hunter, former head of the Christian Coalition; anti-gay Bishop T.D. Jakes; the ex-gay loving Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell; and Jim “waffling” Wallis, a protean progressive. The only Obama shaman who isn’t shameless is the civil rights era preacher Rev. Otis Moss Jr.

Rev. Jakes refers to homosexuality as “brokenness” and has claimed that he wouldn’t hire a sexually active gay person. But it seems T.D. can’t even keep his own son off the D.L. (down low). His “sexually broken” heir was arrested earlier this year for cruising a Dallas Park in search of gay men.
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