Terry Magnum
believed he was doing God’s will when he stabbed gay Southwest Airline flight
attendant Kenneth Cummings Jr. in the head with a six-inch knife. “Sexual
perversion is the worst sin,” he told reporters from the jail in Brazoria County
Texas, where he is charged with a hate-crime in the June 4 slaying. Cummings’
charred body was found days later.
The James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act passed the Texas legislature in 2001, over
the objections of conservative religious groups and Republicans, allowing Texas
crimes motivated by “sexual orientation” to be prosecuted at the highest level
of severity. That can mean more years in sentencing or a lesser chance of
parole. The family of James Byrd, the black man who was brutally murdered in
Texas, and the family of Matthew Shepard, the young gay man who was brutally
murdered in Wyoming, joined together to fight for the law.
Now, the religious right and conservative Republicans have been fighting against
adding sexual orientation and gender to the federal Hate Crimes Enhancement Act
(H.R.1592). A group of Memphis pastors, predominantly African-American, are
targeting Rep. Steve Cohen for supporting the bill.
The “Memphis City Churches” spent thousands of dollars on full-page newspaper
ads opposing the rights of gays and lesbians to marry. Having successfully
amended the Tennessee constitution to prohibit gays and lesbians from marrying,
the group is now opposing the “Hate Crime Bill” because, they argue, such
legislation would infringe upon their religious beliefs and freedom of
speech–freedom to preach against homosexuality. Their website proclaims, “Any
sermons against homosexuality will be a crime. Telling a person that he or she
can come out of the gay life will be a crime.”
Evidently these pastors have not read H.R. 1592, which clearly states, “Nothing
in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, shall be construed to prohibit
any expressive conduct.” That includes preaching against homosexuality. H.R.
1592 would simply expand the current federal hate crime law to provide federal
assistance to local governments in investigating all hate crimes based on race,
religion, color, disability, gender, gender identity or sexual orientation. It
has unanimous support from civil rights leaders.
So why do the “Memphis City Churches” oppose the Hate Crime bill? Where did
they get the erroneous claim that the bill would make it a crime to preach
against homosexuality and gay rights? From the Family Research Council, the
American Family Association and the Traditional Values Coalition, all extremist
anti-gay political organizations.
These Republican political groups are targeting Democrats who support the Hate
Crime bill by fanning the flames of homophobia and anti-gay prejudice,
particularly in African-American churches. These groups are opposed to any
recognition of the human rights of gays and lesbians; even protection from hate
crimes goes too far in granting gays and lesbians the “special rights” of
“life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
The Memphis City Churches website has links to all of these extremist anti-gay
groups, and has lots of talking points against homosexuality and gay rights.
There is no mention of AIDS, drugs, poverty, poor healthcare or crime affecting
the African-American community. Shouldn’t these “Christian ministers” focus on
the problems in their own community instead of attacking the civil rights of
gays and lesbians?
It is sad that a group of purported “Christian” pastors would spend so much of
their resources and energy to attack gays and lesbians and completely ignore the
issues that Jesus Christ focused on. Jesus didn’t teach his followers to build
multi-million dollar churches or attack the civil rights of others. He told
them not to accumulate wealth, to give to the poor, etc. Maybe this is not a
Christian group at all.
In the meantime, a lesbian was attacked at a club in Dyer County on July 15.
Miranda Greer told Jackson police that a man approached her when he saw her
dancing with a male friend. The man thought she was a gay man because she looks
masculine, and started calling her names and telling her to leave. When she
told him she was a lesbian, he responded by punching her in the face, and then
used a beer bottle to jab her in the eye four times before smashing the bottle
over her head. I wonder if he thought he was also doing God’s will?
(Jim Maynard is a Memphis gay leader and political activist.)
