Sign of Intolerance?
Mayoral candidate Marie Johns has snagged some prime Ward 8 real estate for one of her huge banner campaign signs. Motorists passing through the intersection of Good Hope Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in Anacostia can’t miss her “different. real. better!” slogan or the giant image of a smiling Johns.
The banner is tacked up on a wooden facade underneath a small “Welcome to Historic Anacostia” sign. The display wall also includes a placard advertising the owner of the corner lot: “UNION TEMPLE BAPTIST CHURCH: ‘WORKING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE.’”
The Johns campaign isn’t paying anything for the space–it’s chalking it up as an in-kind donation from the church, according to campaign manager Leslie Pinkston.
But that free advertising might end up costing Johns some valuable political capital.
Union Temple is led by the Rev. Willie Wilson, who last summer angered D.C.’s gay community with a sermon outlining his rather intolerant take on homosexuality. The July 3 sermon, which was recorded and sold as a CD, ended up in the hands of the Washington Blade, sparking protests from gay leaders and prompting denunciations from a wide range of elected officials.
Some highlights from the now-famous sermon make it pretty clear why the gay community has issues with the charismatic minister:
- “Lesbianism” is about “to take over our community.”
- “[W]hen you get down to this thing, women falling down on another woman, strapping your up with something, it ain’t real….It ain’t natural”
- “Any time somebody got to slap some grease on your behind, and stick something in you, it’s something wrong with that. Your butt ain’t made for that.”
Not that anyone was that surprised at Wilson’s fiery outburst. He had already staked out a firm reputation for race baiting among D.C. politicos.
Wilson led an 1986 boycott of an Asian-owned takeout near his church after he said a member of his flock had been “disrespected” by a store owner. When asked by the press whether his demands that an African-American be allowed to run the business inflamed racial tensions, Wilson replied that if Anacostia residents had been less forgiving of the store owner, “we would have cut his head off and rolled it down the street.”
But Wilson can be valuable political ally for a newcomer like Johns. He commands the attention of legions of east-of-the-river voters and mounted a strong mayoral run in 2002. Since the sermon, though, gay activists and Wilson have remained bitter enemies. And some activists say Johns’ willingness to accept free space from his church constitutes a tacit Wilson endorsement.
“I would think if [Johns] was sufficiently plugged in she would be well aware of [Wilson's] record of hate-mongering,” says Rick Rosendall of the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance, an advocacy group that does not endorse candidates. “She should stop pretending to be committed to tolerance if she’s not prepared to prove it.”
Pinkston, who says Johns was “in the field” and unavailable for comment, argues that the high-visibility donation has nothing to do with Wilson or any tacit backing of Johns’ effort. “It is not an endorsement. We haven’t even discussed an endorsement,” says Pinkston, who says she personally approached a Union Temple staffer about hanging the banner.
The campaign was looking for some high-profile exposure on the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade route, she says. “[Johns] had no conversation with Mr. Wilson, or with the church directly….Bottom line, the location was ideal. The parade went right passed it.”
Pinkston declined to comment on how voters might react to even an arms-length political association with Wilson. “This campaign is really about building bridges and I would rather not get into the other sensitive issues at this time,” she says. “This is just about the banner.”
April 12th, 2006 at 10:41 pm
Hmmm. She needs another graphic designer/layout person. The banner looks unbalenced- sort of like Willie
April 13th, 2006 at 1:19 am
Why is it that in DC that unless we agree with the gay community that we are wrong.
Maybe they are wrong.
Maybe God does condemn homosexuality.
Maybe we have been condoning a wrong legally.
Why is it that we have to agree and live in fear that if we do not agree that we will be labeled.
Thr fact that Marie Johns has posters near Willie Wilsons church does not make her insensitive.
There are a lot of people in DC who agree with Willie Wilson so why should they have to apologize?
April 13th, 2006 at 9:52 am
Adrian Fenty has a disciple of Willie Wilson on his campaign staff. The guy’s name is Sinclair Skinner. He has transfered Wilson’s message of hate and racism and taken it to U-Street and Georgia Avenue.
April 13th, 2006 at 12:01 pm
The second poster has it wrong: the gay “community” doesn’t ask that you agree with it, just that you leave it alone. If there’s a “gay agenda”, it’s pretty simple, and amounts to “live and let live”. Reasonable people should be okay with that.
The third poster also has it wrong: I’ve seen Sinclair welcomed in Dupont, and not heard a word against him from the top-drawer GLBT activists, whom I know well.
April 13th, 2006 at 12:26 pm
You have obviously never seen Skinner’s “Gramzilla” posters or heard him ridicule Jim Graham for his sexual orientation.
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/lips/2005/lips1202.html
April 13th, 2006 at 12:29 pm
I find it interesting that people resort to petty personal attacks in order to attempt to prove their point.
I am an openly gay, long time DC resident who is also a proud supporter of Adrian Fenty because he has a dynamic vision for the future of this city that moves us beyond the race/sexual orientation bating of the past.
Too much time has been wasted in this city on a variety of he said/she said discussions and its time to move on.
There are serious issues facing this city including education reform, the need for affordable housing, crime reduction and continued economic development.
Great progress has been made and I think Adrian Fenty will work with everyone to ensure that this city reaches its full potential.
As for Sinclair Skinner, I don’t know his past, but I’ve actually had a chance to work with him these past few months and he is one of the nicest, most energenic people I know and if I thought for a minute, that he was homophobic or intolerant, I wouldn’t spend as much time as I do trying to get Hon. Fenty elected.
April 13th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
Chrish Dyer:
Ask Skinner to show you his publication, “The Georgia Avenue Defender,” Issue #3. Then try to say he is not a racist homophobe.
April 13th, 2006 at 9:04 pm
I sent Marie Johns’ campaign an email telling her that an association with the nutty preacher pretty much lost her my vote. I had a very concerned answering machine message from Ms. Johns herself when I got home. Neato!
April 14th, 2006 at 8:01 am
Adrian Fenty is a bigot.
His subtle remarks on the basis of age suggests to me that he fears getting old, that older people have no future in his eyes and for that reason, I would never vote for him.
Marie Johns is more representative in her views of all Washingtonians.
As for the poster above, gay people will often call others homophobics if you disagree with them or their life style.
April 14th, 2006 at 8:05 am
I am opposed to Fenty because he has a hidden surprise for us if elected and that is, to propose legislatio to ban the sale of cigarettes in DC.
This is scary and a bit fascist.