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Loading ...Calif. Gay rights leader rejects inauguration invite
12.19.2008 9:10am EST
(San Francisco, California) The head of California’s largest gay civil rights organization has declined an invitation to attend the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama because Rev. Rick Warren will deliver the invocation.
“It is extremely disappointing and hurtful that President-elect Obama has chosen California Rev. Rick Warren, who actively supported Prop 8 and the elimination of existing civil rights for LGBT Californians, to give the invocation at his inauguration,” said Equality California executive director Geoff Kors in a statement.“Accordingly, I have decided to decline the invitation to attend the inauguration as I cannot be part of a celebration that highlights and gives voice to someone who advocated repealing rights from me and millions of other Californians.”
Kors said he was looking forward to hearing a speech by the new President about his vision of a new America and an end to the politics of division.
“Rick Warren does not share that vision. Far from it. Instead, he actively works to divide Americans based on who we are and has been an ardent supporter of efforts to ostracize LGBT Americans,” said Kors.
Warren is the outspoken evangelical pastor of the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif. – one of the state’s largest megachurches.
He was a major supporter of Proposition 8, the measure that amended the California constitution to ban same-sex marriage in the state.
“There is no need to change the universal, historical definition of marriage to appease 2 percent of our population,” he said during the Prop 8 campaign “This is not a political issue – it is a moral issue that God has spoken clearly about.”
Despite outrage over Warren’s selection to deliver the invocation Obama has defended the choice.
Obama told reporters in Chicago Thursday that America needs to “come together,” even when there’s disagreement on social issues. “That dialogue is part of what my campaign is all about,” he said.
In a statement Thursday night, Warren said he commends the President-elect “for his courage to willingly take enormous heat from his base by inviting someone like me, with whom he doesn’t agree on every issue, to offer the Invocation at his historic Inaugural ceremony.”
So far no other LGBT rights leaders have said they will boycott the inauguration. Among those scheduled to take part is the Lesbian and Gay Band Association.
I am sad to hear that Kors won’t attend. We need to continue to work as an ally to Mr. Obama, even when we don’t agree. Not attending seems almost childish.
Major kudos to Kors for taking this stand. I hope other LGBT figures do likewise. If Obama had some white supremecist speaking at the Inauguration you just know that African-American groups would be raising an epic stink, first black president or not. By gamely sitting quietly while a preacher who has, successfully, fought to deny us equal rights is given a prominent place at the podium any LGBT figures that attend are sending a message that it’s okay to beat down the gay community because we’ll just quietly take it.
Let’s make this clear, this is not a social issue, this is a civil rights issue.
I wonder if Obama would think segragation would be a social issue, or seperate but equal a social issue.
These words come from his own mouth, he doesn’t think we merit being civil rights issue, or having them as well, his words have said it all.
This is a form of protest and I applaud Lors for standing up and boycotting. I so looked forward to watching this on TV. My wife and I were going to take the day off and have a party. But now, I will have my OWN boycott! NO TV on Inaug Day!! We will PARTY, but a party for two– with NO TV (if ya know what I mean!).
Take THAT Rev. Rick!!
Terry, if Rick Warren were a racist, do you think he would be invited to do the invocation? He is a noisy bigot, an outright homophobe who has actively sought to deny GLBT civil rights. This is far from simply agreeing to disagree, Warren seeks to harm us. Kors is taking a stand against government sanctioned bigotry that I fully support.
First, congratulations to Jeff Kors. The Obama people evidently need to learn they can’t take us for granted.
Second, for those who do attend, when Obama’s house bigot gets up to give the invocation – turn your backs on him.
Not attending delivers a statement. Good for you, Kors.
Terry,
You’re absolutely right. As much as I hate that he would select such a bigot instead of someone who’s at least a little more socially progressive, if not all-inclusive, it’s still just one part of a huge event that could’ve helped all of us by our own representatives attending.
I feel like Kors is making us look like the little brat kid who whines that, if he can’t make up the rules of the game as he goes along, he’ll just take his ball and go home. That’s the last thing we need right now.
I agree with Mr. Kors decision to not attend. There isn’t a chance in hell that I would go stand beside people who not only don’t support me, but villify me, just to “make nice and be ‘the bigger man’”. Seeing Rick Warren on stage is the equivalant of seeing all those signs in people’s yards urging the vote for Issue One in Ohio (our own gay marriage ban ammendment) just a few years ago. We do not need token gay men and women standing happily, smiling like nothing is wrong. There’s plenty wrong with Mr. Obama’s decision to have Warren there, and as a GLBT, I’d be ashamed of myself for even considering attending without carrying a protest sign.
Wow, what is wrong with you gay people. You get a chance to be there the duality and yet you will let this Warren go, and you miss an invite of a life time to show there is more to gay life than sex. I am very hurt that you refuse to stand proud and show the world we are larger than the sum. Grow up! Get Dressed and Go to the Party.
We should go with horns and noisemakers and bells, and the second Warren speaks, drown him out.
>Second, for those who do attend, when Obama’s house bigot gets up to give the invocation – turn your backs on him.
I like this approach better.
I disagree that attending the Inauguration “helps” us in any way. 73% of LGBT voters backed Obama. Our reward is to have a gay marching band get to play. Warren and a vast majority of Evangelicals *opposed* Obama and he gets to speak at the podium! The clear message there is that our support is taken for granted, and that it’s far more important to “reach out” to the opposition than to give more than a token acknowledgment to LGBT supporters.
I haven’t heard anything to suggest that, other than the band getting to play, that any LGBT figures will get any prominent roles in the Inauguration events.
When this is combined with Obama’s failure to name ANY LGBT people to his Cabinet, when he even made a point to give posts to two Republicans, the tone of his administration towards the LGBT community so far is one of profound neglect. If he’s going to neglect us then why shouldn’t we neglect him?
It’s kind of like how things were for African-Americans. A lot of people believed that they shouldn’t be enslaved. But that didn’t mean that they should treated as equal to whites either. Indeed, most people in America were quite clear that while blacks had a place in society, it was an inherently inferior (and servile) one. The black musician could entertain you. But he couldn’t eat at the same table as you.
Obama’s position seems to suggest that Patrick Warren, as a prominent white, Evangelical, Republican conservative, is seen as deserving more recognition than any LGBT personage. It certainly makes a statement about how the social pecking order works.
There are limits to just how much marginalization I think we should be willing to tolerate and I think that Obama has stepped WAY past that limit here. He needs to be made to understand that fact and just quietly sitting there and sucking it up will not accomplish that.
We should not validate this travesty by showing up for it!
Not going?!? We have a chance to stand a representative up in front of the world, and we are going to refuse to go? There are other MUCH better ways of reacting to Warren.
Do you think that Warren would refuse to go just because Obama invited Kors? NO! because he wants his chance to get even more well known than he is so he can spread more lies. He wouldn’t give up such free publicity FREE PUBLICITY if the devil himself were invited.
Sometime we have to play by unfriendly rules…I like the kid with the ball analogy. If we keep going home, we make enemies and lose friends.
Kors did exactly what he should have. I applaud him for his choice. I also hope that all of the other LGBT groups grow a backbone and back out of this shiteous event also. As for what Sam said, your exactly right. Obama used us to begin his election campaign and by the end of it, he had throw us to the wolves. Typical politician. Unless he shows us that we are not second class, then I hope he only gets one term, because we will switch to republican after this.
at least with republicans, you know they hate you, they wont pretend to like you just to get your vote.