The most
significant factor that keeps the Black Church on the down-low is
closeted, homophobic ministers. Pastor Donnie McClurkin, a three-time
Gospel Grammy winner and the former poster boy for African American
ex-gay ministries, is one example. In a recent episode of TV One’s
“Uncensored,” McClurkin talked about his sexual past.
“I
didn’t know really what a woman wanted,” McClurkin said
on “Uncensored.” “I’ve messed up more than
I’ve had good. My past relationships were a sprinkling of
everything – men and women.”
McClurkin’s
sexuality has been an open secret. However, now at 61, McClurkin’s
lamenting about growing old and being alone because of his sexuality.
While the Black LGBTQ+ community would applaud someone of McClurkin’s
status telling the truth about his sexual past, many of us can’t
pretend to care because of decades of damning and damaging messages
he hurled at us.
At
the 2009 Convocation, McClurkin espoused his ex-gay rhetoric,
castigating former talented gospel industry worker Tonéx (B.
Slade), who unapologetically stated that he “didn’t
struggle with his sexual attraction to men.” According to
McClurkin, however, black males, like Tonéx, are gay because
of sexual molestation, an absentee father, or they didn’t have
strong male images around them. McClurkin attributed his
homosexuality to being raped twice as a child - first at age eight at
his brother’s funeral by his uncle, and then at age thirteen by
his cousin, his uncle’s son.
“You
can’t call me a homophobic if I’ve been a homosexual...
My thing was from [being] raped. And this started a pathology,”
McClurkin stated on “The Tom Joyner Morning Show” in
2013.
Confusing,
however, same-gender sexual violence with homosexuality, McClurkin
misinterpreted the molestation as the reason for his gay sexual
orientation. McClurkin “testi-lies” that his cure was
done by deliverance from God and a restoration of his manhood by
becoming the biological father of a child.
However,
in 2010, Pastor McClurkin’s homophobic past came back to haunt
him. McClurkin was billed as the main event in the 2010 Boston
Gospelfest, and many African American LGBTQ communities were not in
attendance at the event. Neither was the mayor. Every year,
then-Mayor Tom Menino’s Office of Arts, Tourism, and Special
Events put on its annual Boston GospelFest at City Hall Plaza.
Because the Gospelfest was a public and taxpayer-funded community
event, it was open to all - even the African American LGBTQ
communities.
“I
learned yesterday - through the Phoenix
article regarding the City of Boston Gospel Fest - of the depth and
breadth of Donnie McClurkin’s views on the gay community,”
Burns wrote to me in an email. Julie Burns was then-Director of Arts,
Tourism and Special Events for the Mayor’s Office.
“I
am embarrassed to say that I was not aware of this, and we obviously
should have vetted him further. Gospel Fest is in its 10th year and
is arguably the largest gospel event in New England. Minister
McClurkin was recommended to us by a number of people, and we were
swayed by his artistic honors. Of course, this does not excuse the
situation that we now find ourselves in! Please rest assured that
Mayor Menino did not know anything about this and would never condone
‘hate speech’ of any kind.”
Menino
had the trust and respect among both African American and LGBTQ
communities. However, when it came to moving Boston’s black
ministers on LGBTQ civil rights, Menino’s struggle had been and
was like that of other elected officials and queer activists -
immovable. His absence from that year’s Gospelfest was another
example of how Boston’s black ministers - an influential and
powerful political voting bloc of the mayor’s - would rather
compromise their decades-long friendship with City Hall than denounce
McClurkin’s appearance.
In
2013, McClurkin was scheduled to be one of the singers at the Martin
Luther King Jr. Memorial during the “Reflections on Peace: From
Gandhi to King” event. But D.C.’s mayor, responding to
LGBTQ activists’ outcry of McClurkin’s appearance,
withdrew the invitation.
On
“Uncensored,” McClurkin doesn’t come out with a
full-throated statement about being gay or bisexual. Instead, he
speaks about his sexuality in terms of marriage.
“Honestly,
the only thing in my life that is missing is marriage. The only thing
that is missing in my life that can cause real family is marriage.”
While
McClurkin refers to heterosexual weddings, he does, however, know
about same-sex marriage because he was an opponent of the marriage
equality movement.
In
2021, I am still asking these three questions:
Why can’t
we as an African American community tell the truth about our
sexuality?
What price do we pay in telling the
truth?
And what role does the church play
in perpetuating not only unsafe sexual behavior but also demonizing
its members of the LGBTQ community?
My
answer: ministers like McClurkin.
McClurkin
admitted he still has sexual urges to be with men but won’t act
on them. He compares his gay desires to diabetes: “I don’t
eat sugar, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t want sugar.”
|