Obama’s real intentions toward the LGBT Community: Don’t read his lips; Watch his hands!

by Dr. K. Hermes

If the name David Bahati doesn’t mean much to you, it certainly does to the people of Uganda, especially those who are gay, perceived to be gay, or are infected with HIV. David Bahati wants them executed. As a member of the Ugandan Parliament, he introduced legislation that would allow the Ugandan government to bring people to trial and execute them simply on suspicion of being gay.

More troubling, however, is that Bahati was about to come to the United States as an invited guest to participate in the National Prayer Breakfast, an annual event attended by President Obama last year and one he plans to attend this year on February 15. The Breakfast is not a fellowship of ecumenical folks from all religions, but a coterie of so-called Christians, mostly fundamentalist, who hold a very select set of beliefs, among them that gay people are abominations. The Breakfast, which has been held since 1953, has also been attended by every U.S. president from Eisenhower onward. In its initial manifestation, the Breakfast was begun by a Methodist, but it has been hijacked by Fundamentalists. And never before has the guest list included such a vocal proponent of genocide. Although Bahati is no longer going to attend the Breakfast, the invitation accepted by President Obama was extended long before, so that Mr. Obama was aware that Mr. Bahati was supposed to be there. There have been pleas for Mr. Obama to refuse to attend, but the pleas fell on deaf ears. Apparently, attending the Breakfast with a “kill-the-gays” proponent did not trouble him.

There is a persistent belief among the mainstream media and those who follow its more esoteric articles that the National Prayer Breakfast is hosted by the “religious right.” To most people, that suggests Republicans. Yet plenty of Democrats also attend the National Prayer Breakfast, not as a counterpart to its “conservatism,” but because they too believe in the theology espoused by its evangelical hosts. The group that sponsors the Breakfast have recently become the objects of attention with the publication of a book called The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power by Jeff Sharlet, and its author has been interviewed extensively. Despite the attention, no connection between Obama and the Family has been made.

Is Obama a member of The Family or a proponent of its views? The face that Obama shows to the world would suggest not. He claimed during his campaign that he was the “fierce advocate” of LGBT people. In his first State of the Union Address he promised once again to repeal the Clinton Era policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which has caused the purging of over 13,500 military men and women from the ranks of the armed services. Behind the scenes, though, Obama associations indicate that he may indeed espouse the anti-gay views of The Family and the hosts of the National Prayer Breakfast.

Barack Obama has long maintained friendships and political relationships with people who believe homosexuality is an abomination. (When evangelicals use the term “abomination”, it has genocidal overtones, since the phrasing comes from the Old Testament of the Christian Bible in which death is prescribed as the punishment for two men lying together. While many Christians believe homosexuality is a sin, not all of them use the term “abomination,” and still other Christian groups accept gay people on the same terms they accept straight people. ) One of Obama’s spiritual advisors and fellow Democrats from Chicago is the Rev. James Meeks, an evangelical pastor of the Salem Baptist Church whom the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified as one of American’s leading preachers of gay hate among African-Americans. Meeks is also the founder and chair of the Illinois Family Institute, a conservative and profoundly anti-gay foundation.

Then there is the company Obama kept on the campaign trail. For those unfamiliar with the “ex-gay ministry” movement, it is an evangelical coalition that believes LGBT youth can be “saved” from their sexual orientation by spiritual (and psychological) reconditioning so that they may eventually marry and be “normal.” Obama linked up with Donnie McClurkin, a prominent ex-gay, and a singing group called Mary Mary, which has declared that homosexuals are like “murderers.” Their attitudes were not secret; indeed, Obama was on-stage with them when they made such remarks. Buju Banton, a reggae singer who is well known not only for his consumption of narcotics but also for his songs about killing gay people, appeared in an Obama campaign video.

Less pernicious than these associations with “kill-the-gays” proponents, but equally damning, are the associations with more well known anti-gay clergymen. Obama campaigned on a “Family, Faith and Values Tour” that he promoted on his campaign website. At the same time that he said he did not support Proposition 8 in California, the ballot initiative that banned same-sex marriage in an amendment to the California constitution, Obama traveled with Douglas Kmiec, a Catholic priest and law professor who helped design and promote Prop 8. In perhaps his most openly shown contempt for gay people, Obama invited the anti-gay Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration. The inauguration and its invocation were shown on international television. Warren’s presence was undoubtedly noted in Uganda, where he was a frequent visitor as a member of The Family and where his ministries promoted anti-gay propaganda.

Is Obama guilty of gay-hate by association? Dorothy Day, an activist for the progressive Catholic Worker movement once said, “I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions.” I don’t know the president, and I am certainly not privy to his innermost thoughts. One might counter that he has lots of “pro-equality” associates, although nowhere do I see evidence of gay friends who have the closeness to him as a Rev. Meeks.

Obama has made no public statements that are the equivalent of the rhetoric used by people with whom he has appeared on the campaign trail. Yet his tour with McClurkin and other outspoken anti-gay activists, with whom he mildly suggested he “disagreed,” was condemned as early as 2007 by LGBT and straight supporters, white and African American, who found it offensive and politically risky. In other words, Obama chose, against strong advice, to tour with gay haters openly during his campaign. Close associations speak volumes about a person, and as a careful politician, one would be surprised to see overtly anti-gay remarks when Obama has courted LGBT voters. He was careful to make his appearances with Donnie McClurkin in venues where the LGBT constituency was not one of his priority targets.

His administration has pursued doggedly anti-gay policies, although mostly under the cover of the Justice Department. When the light is on Obama, he is seen signing the Hate Crimes Bill or signing an order giving federal employees same-sex partner benefits. Neither of these acts, though, is what it appears. As a counter to Rick Warren, Obama was persuaded by Barney Frank to have the Rev. Gene Robinson of the Episcopal Church, a gay bishop, say a prayer at the inaugural concert. Yet this prayer, unlike Warren’s, was not televised at all, per the request of the Obama Team. The Hate Crimes Bill was an amendment to a military appropriations act, which Obama desperately needed to keep fighting the war in Afghanistan, a war he intended to and eventually did escalate. The benefits that he conferred on federal employees turned out not to be so radical either. Most of the benefits were already there and very little new was added.

On the other hand, the Justice Department’s briefs in cases involving the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) are rife with derogatory and demeaning comparisons of gay marriage to acts of “abomination,” such as incest and pedophilia. Much of the DOMA briefs’ content reads like the State of Virginia’s arguments in the case that eventually overturned laws against interracial marriage, Loving v. Virginia. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell remains the administration’s policy; no stop-loss order has been issued and currently the Pentagon is promising only to study the issue.

The United States army, which maintains a presence in Iraq, has also been a witness to the execution of gay people in that nation since Obama took office. As commander-in-chief, he has done nothing to stop it. Despite condemnations of the practice by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the administration has taken no action.

Can Obama innocently attend the Breakfast now that Bahati is not coming? He should not, but he probably will. (He attended his first in February, 2009.) The Breakfast, as it has developed, represents a particular sectarian part of Christianity that is neither mainstream nor benign. Its members hold to tenets which they are free to express, but which the government should take no part in endorsing. It is time for politicians to stop attending the Breakfast, including Obama.

We should be concerned about Obama’s association with the National Prayer Breakfast and his intentions toward the LGBT community. The members of The Family include people who are genocidal in their attitudes toward gay people, especially gay men. Obama is not a member of The Family, but some of its members are in the Congress of the United States. His presence at their breakfast gives it a legitimacy it should not have. It is almost unthinkable that the United States would pursue genocidal policies within its borders, but it is not at all far-fetched to observe that some of these men, members of Congress or pastors of large Christian churches, are promoting elsewhere what they cannot do at home.

They have targeted African countries, including Uganda, Rwanda and Malawi. Suffering under a legacy of colonialism and the weight of an HIV epidemic, The Family has fed on the fears of African leaders, suggesting that gay people are responsible for their plight. This is yet one more act of U.S. colonialism, exporting genocidal ideas to vulnerable countries with receptive leaders. It is time for the LGBT community in the United States to be vigilant, to look closely at members of our government, including the president, and scrutinize their associations that threaten the lives of LGBT people in the world.

Dr. K. Hermes is currently a Professor of History at Central Connecticut State University, specializing in legal history, Native American history, and colonialism. She co-authored Sex and Sexuality in a Feminist World with Karen A. Ritzenhoff.  Dr. Hermes is a progressive LGBT rights activist based out of Connecticut.

Editor’s Note: See below for further reading recommendations per Dr. Hermes.
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1. A BILL FOR AN ACT ENTITLED THE ANTI HOMOSEXUALITY ACT, 2009. The full text of the bill, including the memorandum, is available at Box Turtle Bulletin, “The Text of Uganda’s Proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill,” http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2009/10/15/15609 (accessed Jan. 29, 2010).
2. Juliet Lapidos, “What’s With All the Prayer Breakfasts?” Slate, http://www.slate.com/id/2220599. Although this op-ed is tongue-in-cheek, it confirms Obama’s intention to attend the National Prayer Breakfast just as he did in 2009.
3. The National Prayer Breakfast, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Prayer_Breakfast (accessed Jan. 29, 2010) and The Fellowship (Christian Organization), Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Family_(Christian_political_organization (accessed Jan. 29, 2010)
4. “Bahati will not attend National Prayer breakfast with Obama,” Now Public, http://www.nowpublic.com/world/bahati-will-not-attend-national-prayer-breakfast-obama (accessed Jan. 29, 2010)
5. Andrew Sullivan, “Bahati to Attend the National Prayer Breakfast,” The Daily Dish (The Atlantic), http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/01/bahati-to-attend-the-national-prayer-breakfast.html.
6. Bart Stupak (D-MI) and Bill Nelson (D-NE), for example, are current members of The Fellowship, aka The Family. See Wikipedia, above. Stupak and Nelson are most recently known for introducing anti-abortion amendments into the House and Senate health care reform bills, respectively. “Abortion Foe Defies Party on Health Care Bill,” The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/us/politics/07stupak.html. Current Secretary of the Interior and former senator Ken Salazar (D-CO) and Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) were former chairs of a Breakfast in 2008.
7. Jeff Sharlet, The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power (New York: HarperCollins, 2008); Rachel Maddow, “Democrat and Republican ‘C-Street’ Connections Exposed,” YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlBl5STMhSQ (accessed Jan. 29, 2010); “The Secret Political Reach of the Family,” National Public Radio, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120746516 (accessed Jan. 29, 2010).
8. Linda McGann, “Obama: ‘I am a Fierce Advocate for Gay and Lesbians,” Washington Independent, http://washingtonindependent.com/22526/obama-im-a-fierce-advocate-for-gay-and-lesbians (accessed Jan. 29, 2010).
9. “President Right to Seek End to DADT,” CNN, http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/01/28/nicholson.obama/; About “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, http://www.sldn.org/pages/about-dadt (accessed Jan. 29, 2010).
10. Leviticus, 20:13, http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_bibh3.htm; “Ohio Democrat Wants Death Penalty for Homosexuals,” http://atheism.about.com/b/2006/03/08/ohio-democrat-wants-death-penalty-for-homosexuals.htm; “What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality?” http://www.twopaths.com/faq_homosexuality.htm (all accessed Jan. 29, 2010).
11. A.S. Yang, “Trends: Attitudes Towards Homosexuality,” The Public Opinion Quarterly, 1997; “Attitudes towards Homosexuality,” http://rationalwiki.com/wiki/Attitudes_towards_homosexuality (accessed Jan. 31, 2010).
12. “Southern Poverty Law Center: Another Obama Spiritual Advisor is a Hate Monger,” Radio-Left, http://blog.radioleft.com/blog/_archives/2008/3/31/3613811.html (accessed Jan. 29, 2010); A. McEwen, Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, http://holybulliesandheadlessmonsters.blogspot.com/2009/03/illinois-family-institute-uses-paul.html (accessed Jan. 31, 2010)
13. “The Barack Obama-Donnie McClurkin Debacle,” BlackVoices, http://www.blackvoices.com/black_lifestyle/soul_spirit_headlines_features/canvas/feature_article/_a/the-barack-obamadonnie-mcclurkin-debacle/20071106130709990001 (accessed Jan. 29, 2010).
14. “Buju Banton in Barack Obama Music Video,” Dancehall.Mobi, http://www.dancehall.mobi/2008/08/27/buju-banton-in-barack-obama-music-video/ (accessed Jan. 29, 2010); “Gay Lib Network Checks ‘Kill Gays’ Performer Buju Banton,” Salon, http://open.salon.com/blog/max_the_communist/2009/08/29/gay_lib_network_checks_kill_gays_performer_buju_banton
15. “Obama’s Family Faith and Values Tour to Feature Law Prof Who Opposes Same Sex Marriage,” Feminist Law Professors Blog, http://feministlawprofs.law.sc.edu/?p=4118 (accessed Jan. 29, 2010)
16. “Ten Obama Faith Moments,” US News and World Report, http://www.usnews.com/listings/ten-obama-faith-moments/rick-warren-invocation.
17. “Networks Prepare for Inauguration: Marathon Coverage Plans in the Works,” Variety, http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117998657.html?categoryid=14&cs=1
18. Bruce Wilson, “Rick Warren’s Mentor Tied to Effort Behind Uganda’s ‘Kill the Gays’ Bill, The Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-wilson/rick-warren-mentor-tied-t_b_382480.html (accessed Jan. 29, 2010).
19. “Obama’s Anti-Gay Gamble,” Direland, http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2007/11/obamas-anti-gay.html (accessed Jan. 31, 2010).
20. “Obama’s Gospel Concert Tour,” Caucus-Blogs, New York Times, http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/obamas-gospel-concert-tour/ (accessed Jan. 29, 2010.
21. “No Bishop Gene Robinson on HBO,” Joe.My.God., http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2009/01/no-bishop-gene-robinson-on-hbo.html (Jan. 31, 2010.
22. “Obama Signs Hate Crimes Bill,” CNN, http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/28/hate.crimes/index.html (accessed Jan. 29, 2010).
23. “Obama OKs Some Benefits for Employees’ Same-Sex Partners,” CNN, http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/16/obama.same.sex.benefits/index.html
24. “Obama Defends DOMA,” LavenderLeft, http://news.lavenderliberal.com/2009/06/12/obama-defends-doma-invokes-incest-rape-child-marriage-ditches-loving-roemer-and-more-that-will-make-you-sick-to-your-stomach/ (accessed Jan. 29, 2010).
25. Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967), http://www.oyez.org/cases/1960-1969/1966/1966_395 (oral arguments)
26. “Ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell will be Several Year Process with a Special Investigation,”AP newswire, http://gay.americablog.com/2010/01/ap-ending-dadt-will-be-several-year.html (accessed Jan. 31, 2010).
27. “Stop Execution of Gay Iraqis,”Iraqi LGBT, http://iraqilgbtuk.blogspot.com/2009/03/stop-executions-of-gay-iraqis.html (accessed Jan. 31, 2010).
28. “Obama Talks God at National Prayer Breakfast,” ABC News, http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/02/obama-talks-god.html (accessed Jan. 29, 2010)