Petition to Fight Maryland Anti-Gay Pastor’s Kill the Gays Rhetoric

Make It Stop.

By Melanie Nathan, Oct 25, 2012.

Today I received this e-mail from Heather Cronk, Managing Director of GetEQUAL , who describes herself as a “proud Maryland resident.”  Maryland is one of hte states where an anti- same-sex marriage appears on the ballot for next month.  Heather describes the Kill the Gays rhetoric by the Pastor in question.

“Dear Melanie,

From time to time, even my mind is blown by the lengths that anti-equality folks will go to in order to win ballot initiatives that limit or roll back the rights of LGBT Americans. Yesterday was one of those times.

I was watching the local news yesterday evening and saw video footage of a Maryland pastor making the argument that LGBT folks should be put to death — and allies of LGBT folks should also be put to death. I nearly fell off the couch! I live in Maryland, and the fight here to keep a law in place that grants civil marriage equality to LGBT Marylanders is getting pretty nasty — but this was really too much.

But the worst part is that, when the pastor made these comments, the campaign manager for the anti-equality campaign — Derek McCoy — was sitting right next to him, nodding. That’s right — the man leading the charge to take away rights from LGBT Marylanders thinks there is nothing wrong with the assertion that LGBT folks and our allies should be killed.

Can you send a clear message to Derek McCoy that this kind of rhetoric is harmful, shameful, and inappropriate for a campaign to condone? We’ll deliver your signature next week to show that there’s no place in the debate for this kind of hatred.

Add your name to the petition.

Just so that you know I’m not exaggerating, here’s — verbatim — what he said:

The Scriptures in Leviticus 18:22 — you know what that says, that a man is not to lay down with another man; if they do that, it’s an abomination. But there is one verse I really wanted to drive home and then I’ll stop, but that’s in Romans Chapter 1. And it’s the very last verse — as you know, Paul addresses this. Listen to the last verse: “Knowing the righteous judgment of God that those who practice such things are deserving of death. Not only do the same” — but watch this — “for those who also approve of those who practice these things.” If we don’t vote against it, then we are approving these things that are worthy of death! [1]

There was no qualification of this statement — no “I mean spiritual death, not physical death” or “of course we don’t mean putting people to death, but you see how seriously the Bible takes this question.” In fact, in subsequent interviews, this pastor — Robert Anderson — has not backed off of this statement, nor has he apologized. [2]

Statements like these are irresponsible and we won’t tolerate them without pushing back. Opponents of equality keep saying that they will face discrimination if this ballot initiative passes — that’s a ridiculous assertion and only fuels statements like these.

Add your name to the petition.

We’ll deliver your signature and all other signatures from this petition next week — and we’ll send a clear message that violence and hate-filled rhetoric has no place in civil rights debates.

For equality,

Heather Cronk, Managing Director and proud Maryland resident

Sources:

[1] “Maryland Anti-Equality Campaign: Gays Who Don’t Change Are ‘Deserving Of Death’” — October 22, 2012 (http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/10/22/1060331/maryland-anti-equality-campaign-gays-who-dont-change-are-deserving-of-death)

[2] “Maryland Pastor Stands Behind Same-Sex Marriage ‘Worthy of Death’ Remarks” — October 25, 2012 (http://www.nbcwashington.com/blogs/first-read-dmv/Maryland-Pastor-Stands-Behind-Same-Sex-Marriage-Worthy-of-Death-Remarks-175713101.html)”