A week after a group of pro-gay Black marriage activists gathered downtown for a press conference, more than two dozen African-American religious leaders gathered to attack gay marriages.
At Sweet Holy Spirit Gospel Baptist Church, 28 denominations were represented, reports the Tribune. They said they would collect 50,000 signatures in the city’s Black churches. African-Americans might now think twice about blindly voting for Democratic candidates, said Bishop Larry Trotter of Sweet Holy Spirit, who warned Mayor Daley on this issue.
But progressive Blacks including Coretta Scott King have voiced support of gay marriage, even while Jesse Jackson opposes such unions. Gay writer Keith Boykin had a piece in the May 24 Village Voice pointing out the hypocrisy of Black ministers aligning themselves with a movement filled with those who opposed civil rights for Blacks in the past.
‘If the KKK opposes gay marriage, I would ride with them,’ Rev. Gregory Daniels, a Chicago Black minister, said from the pulpit in February.