Metro Weekly

Harry Jackson revived: Promotes vote on DC gay marriage, ex-gays, “outraged blacks” [video]

”I believe in civil rights, according to Walter Fauntroy, who’s one proponent of our DC marriage bill here that we’re working on, said that housing, education, salary, and also fair treatment in court is ultimately the essense of what civil rights is really all about….”
”I’m concerned about the next generation, the children…. Many blacks are outraged that the civil rights comparison is being made based on their pain, based on their problems, fundamentally changing the equation which is 5, 6, 10 thousand years old….”
”I believe for many people it really is a matter of choice. And I have ex-gays in our church, people who’ve come out of the lifestyle, it’s an amazing thing…. How should a relationship be defined, and should it be defined to the detriment of the broader institutions: education, training — kids are going to be taught certain things in school….”
”I don’t really want to address homosexuality. I’m dealing with the fact that the majority of people of California said, ‘Let the people vote.’ … I feel that pain, in many areas, that has already been aleviated through civil unions.”

Harry Jackson, leader of Hope Christian Church in Maryland, appearing in an MSNBC segment to promote his effort to overturn marriage for lesbian and gay couples in Washington. He is reportedly a well-educated, affluent preacher who owns multiple homes and previously implored “the Black vote” to support George W. Bush.

In this video, Jackson continually tells host, Cenk Uyger, that same-sex marriages threaten children. He also pits the historic struggle of African Americans’ rights against gay Americans’ rights. Yesterday, one of his comrades, a DC preacher named Anthony Evans, did the exact same thing, going so far as to declare (without any evidence) that Martin Luther King, Jr was against gay marriage. (MSNBC via YouTube)

Jackson and his cohorts attempted many times last year to block gay marriage from being passed. They even tried to appeal to Congress to intervene — to circumvent the District’s home rule because Mayor Fenty and and a nearly unanimous DC City Council supported the gay marriage law. Jackson held offensive public rallies and went on many cable news programs. He held hands with the National Organizationf or Marriage, the Family Research Council, the Washington Archdiocese, Marion Barry, and several local preachers to file a man-woman only “Marriage Initiative.” He tried to get the Supreme Court to block the approved law from taking effect.

And, at a series of public hearings on gay marriage, Councilman David Catania questioned Jackson, only to discover that Jackson had never voted in DC, nor was he aware that voter initiatives were once used keep DC’s black citizens from voting. In today’s interview, he mentions Walter Fauntroy, another preacher and long-time DC political figure, who put on an incoherent, foolish display at those same Council hearings last year.

 

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