White House Streams MLK Day Homophobic Rant

‘Demonic’ remarks hosted on White House YouTube channel

Did you hear how the White House livestreamed an ugly homophobic rant in honor of Martin Luther King Day? Officials didn’t stop at streaming the church service Vice President Mike Pence attended. They posted a video to the official White House YouTube channel, where it remains, implicit calls for gay bashing and gay-panic defense included. The White House is ramping up attacks on LGBTQ people beyond mere dog whistling.

Bishop Jerry Wayne Taylor calls gay people ‘demonic’

Last Sunday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Vice President Mike Pence spoke at the Holy City Church of God in Christ in Memphis, Tennessee. In an ironic twist, Pence called for people to remember King’s words “in these divided times.” Then the church’s founder stepped up to the same pulpit and preached that “the devil” is responsible for gay people. Pence looked on, smiling and nodding.

And then the man gets attracted to me and he’ll get in trouble… Don’t put your hands on me!

Jerry Wayne Taylor, Holy City’s pastor and bishop, delivered the anti-LGBTQ rant while the White House was livestreaming. Later that same day, White House officials posted video of the bishop’s screed to their official YouTube channel where it’s been viewed by almost 100 thousand people to date.

Taylor began his address by telling the congregation he “can see God’s spirit in [Pence].” He quickly moved to the meat of his message, claiming “the devil” is trying to destroy people’s family “foundations.”

It’s a demonic spirit that causes another woman to want to lie with another woman. It’s a demonic spirit that causes another man, a man, to be attracted to another man.

To loud shouts of “Amen,” Taylor said “God didn’t make us for that. He made a man to be a man.

Bishop Taylor endorsed gay bashing and the gay-panic defense

Next came a remark pregnant with the kind of violence the nation has come to expect from Trump and Trump supporters. “And then the man gets attracted to me and he’ll get in trouble… Don’t put your hands on me!”

With that remark, Taylor not only praised gay bashing, he reinforced the false trope that gay men threaten straight men and that fighting off their sexual advances is necessary and appropriate.

The sanctuary echoed with ugly laughter while Taylor went on to make a crude joke. “If you want to know what God made you,” he said, “check your plumbing in the bathroom.” — as he gestured toward his genital area.

Bishop Taylor preached that even animals aren’t gay

The bishop repeated a falsehood often used to insult LGBTQ people. He claimed homosexuality does not exist in nonhuman species of animals. “You never see two male animals coming together. Animals have not left the place that God calls them to be in.”

That is the opposite of true, according to Alex Bollinger writing in LGBTQ Nation, pointing to numerous examples of homosexuality in the animal kingdom. In fact, according to Biological Exuberance, an award-winning St. Martin’s Press book by Bruce Bagemihl, biologists have observed homosexual activity, same-sex couplings, or parenting pairs in over 450 animal species.

The video remains on official White House resources

As of late Wednesday evening, the video showcasing Taylor’s homophobic condemnations, references to violence, and falsehoods was prominently visible on the first page of the official White House YouTube channel. Taylor’s full remarks are available in this White House video, beginning at the 2:43:00 mark.

Pence’s remarks dishonor the memory of Martin Luther King Jr.

The Vice President made a few generic, empty statements about the slain civil rights leader: “I know in my heart of hearts if we rededicate ourselves to the ideals that he advanced, if we strive to open doors of opportunities for every American and if we more faithfully follow the one that he followed, will see our way through these divided times.”

From Pence, words of divided times and King’s ideals rings not just hollow, but reckless given the ugly nature of the church service he attended.

• What could be more divisive than claiming LGBTQ people are “of the devil” or are caused by a “demonic spirit?”
• What could be more divisive than remarks implying gay men deserve to be beaten if they display attraction toward straight men?
• What could be more divisive than repeating a tired trope that LGBTQ people are lower than animals?
• What could be more divisive than making those comments available to the nation via official White House communications?

Pence‘s ugly history rallying homophobes

The Vice President often appears in public with fiery anti-LGBTQ speakers and with leaders of anti-LGBTQ hate groups like Focus on the Family, and The Alliance Defending Freedom.

Pence champions legal discrimination against LGBTQ people

• The vice president’s wife teaches at a Christian school that officially excludes LGBTQ students and faculty and anyone living with family who are LGBTQ or who “condone” LGBTQ people. Pence claims to be offended by those who oppose his wife working for an exclusionary and divisive employer.
• In comments reported by the Washington Blade, Pence said he “couldn’t be more proud” of Department of Health & Human Services rules that will keep federal money flowing to contractors that refuse to place children with LGBTQ parents.
• In 2015, while governor of Indiana, Pence signed Senate Bill 101 into law, allowing individuals and corporations to legally discriminate against LGBTQ people by citing religious objections to equal treatment. A national firestorm erupted as corporations and other states boycotted Indiana. Pence signed legislation overturning that law later the same year, but under protest.

Pence is Trump’s homophobia point man

President Trump himself sometimes makes ridiculous claims that his administration is pro-LGBTQ despite what the Washington Post calls a devastating record of rolling back rights for members of gender and sexual minorities.

Pence makes no such ridiculous claims. When he stumps anti-LGBTQ lobbying circuits and homophobic churches like Bishop Taylor’s Holy City, Trump’s base know exactly what the message is. They rally to the cause of excluding LGBTQ people from society.

Bishop Taylor was so sure of Pence’s support that he delivered a fierce homophobic rant while the vice president sat mere feet from his pulpit — a rant now available from official US government information sources.

Denying LGBTQ people equality is Trump’s reelection strategy

Trump and Pence know they can only win the 2020 election by keeping conservative Christians on their side, and they’re not missing a beat. For Trump, it’s probably just politics, but Pence seems to have his heart in hurting LGBTQ people.

Another speaker at the January 19th services, Bishop Vincent Matthews Jr., praised Pence for his strong Christian faith, thanking him for his strong stand, and calling him “one of the most persecuted Christians in America.”

He highlighted a theme of the Trump administration: Christians who are not allowed to stigmatize and discriminate against LGBTQ people are persecuted. Religious people (if they are Judeo-Christian conservatives) who are not allowed to force their beliefs on others are persecuted.

For LGBTQ people, the times are frightening

What happens if Trump wins in 2020? We’re already faced with constant erosion and even wholesale evaporation of civil rights protections. We already face an official White House video where a preacher praises gay bashing as a manly virtue.

What’s next? In nobody’s worst nightmare could things have gotten this bad in only three years. Another 5 years of Trump could destroy every liberal value we used to hold dear as a nation. And it’s not just LGBTQ rights. I hardly need mention the waves of racism and xenophobia Trump is unleashing. Cops executing Black people with little fear of consequences. Refugees on our southern border being treated worse than farm animals. Women’s rights over their own bodies disappearing day by day.

A White House video praising gay bashing shows us that we must rise up as a nation and rid ourselves of Trump and Trumpism. The alternative is unthinkable.

James Finn is a long-time HIV/LGBTQ activist, an alumnus of Act Up NYC, an essayist occasionally published in queer news outlets, and an “agented” novelist. Send questions, comments, and story ideas to [email protected].