By Jimi Izrael

I was on the B-Shop not long ago with Keith Boykin, the gay Al Sharpton, speaking on Obama and his affiliation with ex-gay Donnie McClurkin,which apparently offends the sensibilities of some in the gay community. I’ve been saying it since last election: the gay community has to stop making people show their Gay Card. Why does anyone have to check in, and with whom? I was gonna put Boykin on blast, but I didn’t want to put him on the spot by pointing something out. Namely, the most troubling thing about McClurkin/Obama crosstalk, for me, isn’t his “ex-gay”-ness. But apparently, he turned his back on homosexual activity having been exposed to it unnaturally e.g. a pervert uncle and cousin who raped him repeatedly in the formative years of his life. Before we go there, the fact that the relative touches little kids, and not their sexuality, is the thing that makes them perverted. Now, the gay community doesn’t think he has a right to heal from that trauma on his own terms, some instead suggesting that, well, you know, he was probably going turn gay at some point anyway and even as a child, probably enjoyed it. Some have said that explicitly and others, by scrutinizing his current stance, imply it. Obviously, these idiots don’t have kids. I don’t know anything about the ex-gay movement, but I’m willing to bet that a sizable percentage of ex-gays are the victims of some brand of sexual abuse, looking to reconcile that in some way that will let hem live their lives without conflict. How is the gay community, beyond ridiculing them, prepared to handle these people? (>crickets chirping<) Right. Read More
That’s what I thought. I think bowing to societal pressure to change your orientation is wrong, however, victims of abuse should have a safe-space to find their true self, whoever that ultimately turns out to be, without putting a run in anyone’s stocking. And of course, anyone sexualizing little kids should be shot in the head. That said, I don’t read McClurkin as anti-gay: I read him as a victim of sexual abuse coming to terms with it in a way not all of us agree with. I don’t agree with his message or his means, necessarily, and I don’t have to. None of us do. But I also don’t fault Obama for getting down with him. You can’t be held accountable for your people’s politics, certainly not over an issue like this.