Category: sexual orientation

McClurkin supports Obama; says he has been misunderstood

To the Chicago tribune, Gospel singer Donnie McClurkin says he met up with Obama at an Oprah gathering and liked what he heard from the Senator.

“I believe in his stance. I believe in his platform and his agenda. So when they asked me if I would be a part of it, there was no problem,” said McClurkin, who has performed at both parties’ conventions and identifies himself as a Democrat. “We don’t have to agree on everything, but we do have to agree on the main thing: that there needs to be change and I believe he is the candidate to bring it.”

Regarding his stance on homosexuality, he says:

For years, McClurkin has talked from the pulpit about how he was raped by a male family member as a child. It was that act, he has said, that sent him into living as a gay man for the better part of 20 years. He now says he is straight and that his ministry is open to those who say they no longer want to live as a gay person. What he doesn’t do, he says, is crusade against homosexuality.

“There’s never been a statement made by me about curing homosexuality. People are using that in order to incite anger and to twist my whole platform on it. There’s no crusade for curing it or to convert everyone. This is just for those who come to me and ask for change.”

Elsewhere, the Human Rights Campaign weighs in to change the name of the concert series to “We Forced the Change.”

And this isn’t the first time that the Human Rights Campaign has crossed paths with McClurkin.

Besen to Obama: Don’t embrace the change, drop McClurkin

Americablog and Wayne Besen have managed to whip the Obama “Embrace the Change” Gospel Tour into an AP story today.

I wrote Donnie McClurkin to ask him if he had changed his views on gay rights with no reply as yet. I also wonder if he is an Obama supporter — which would be a stretch from his Republican National Convention appearance in 2004. From the AP article, it does not appear that he has changed his views about his own experience or how to think about sexuality, but nothing is said about his political views.

Obama now seems to be in a difficult spot: keep McClurkin and send more gay supporters to Hillary or drop him and make a mess of his South Carolina strategy for wooing socially conservative Christians.

Exodus files ethics complaint against Alicia Salzer over Montel Show comments

<img src='/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/exodus-press-release.thumbnail.JPG' alt='' align="left" hspace="10" Vspace="10"/Alan Chambers and Exodus have filed an ethics complaint against television psychiatrist Alicia Salzer. Actually the complaint was filed some weeks ago but Exodus has received no reply from the APA. Dr. Salzer works for Montel Williams and in that role took part in a controversial March 15 episode titled “Homosexuality…Can it be cured?” After Alan described his personal story, Dr. Salzer had this to say:

“This is marketing; this is not science…Science has shown us that 96% of people cannot change and along the way, absorb an enormous amount of self-loathing, a lot of confusion, a lot of family conflict, so I know the harm.”

In the ethics complaint, Alan refers to my blog post on Dr. Salzer’s misapplication of Shidlo and Schroeder’s research to provide some of the foundation for the complaint. In their public statements, psychiatrists are not to speak for the profession without solid empirical evidence. In this case, Dr. Salzer spoke not only for psychiatry but for science.

As noted in past posts, the video Abomination takes a similar route. The documentary presents the Shidlo and Schroeder study as if one can have confidence in their findings being representative of those who have sought out ex-gay style ministries or therapy.

As I mentioned in a recent post, I intend to re-view the documentary and have some more to say about the video and the harm that can come from misguided methods.