One of the things that has really irritated me over the last decade is the emergence of the group of conservative Black sellout megachurch ministers who do the dirty work that their white fundie paymasters can't.When the Reichers opposed the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act they called upon go-to homobigot Harry Jackson and his fellow Negro ministers in the Hi Impact Leadership Coalition back in April to browbeat the Congressional Black Caucus into withdrawing support for the bill. That group included Grammy-winning gospel artist and Detroit minister Marvin Winans.
The Congressional Black Caucus is not known as the 'Conscience of the Congress' for nothing. The CBC members and their staffers thankfully saw through the lies that Jackson and his merry band of homohaters were pushing. The homobigots pastors were taking their talking points from James Dobson and asserting that passage of HR 1592, which is now pending in the Senate as the Matthew Shepard Hate Crime Bill would keep them from expressing their First Amendment rights to preach anti-gay sermons and open them up to prosecution.
You know something, maybe people should file civil suits against you idiots if it's proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that your anti-gay diatribes inspired someone to go run out after the bendiction and kill a GLBT person.
The bottom line is that Jackson and his band of bigots are straight up prevaricating. There has been no law ever enacted in United States history that curtails First Amendment free speech protections and this one is no exception. In fact, the ACLU noted that HR 1592 "has stronger protections for free speech than any other federal criminal law now on the books."How dare these so-called men of the cloth even part their lips to parrot James Dobson's false witness on this bill. Are you that joined to the hip and pockets of white fundamentalists that you can't even come up with your own creative BS in an attempt to kill this bill?
By the way, you failed. The House passed it 237-180 and it's now in the Senate.
Y'all are on the wrong side of history and this issue along with your Reicher buddies. 68% of the country is in favor of passage of this legislation, and that support according to a June 10-13 Gallup poll is BIPARTISAN. It even includes your homobigot base.
The evidence is crystal clear that bias crimes committed against transgender people are rampant and something needs to be done about it. I posted earlier about today being the seventh anniversary of the Amanda Milan killing in New York. It should be of great concern to you so-called Black preachers that your fellow African-Americans are disproportionately affected by it. Since 1999 70% of the over 300 victims posted to the Remembering our Dead list are predominately people of color.
So why in Hades would you oppose a bill that has the support of law enforcement personnel, prosecutors and the NAACP when you as an African-American know better than anyone what it's like to live life with a target on your back?