The Boston Convention and Exhibition Center was renamed Saturday to honor Mayor Thomas Menino. For more than 20 years, Menino was a major figure to the people of Boston. He had a deep commitment to equality, and he understood the plight of the underdog. The LGBTQ+ Black community had an ally in Menino at a time when our struggles mainly went unheard.
Every year, Mayor Tom Menino’s Office of Arts, Tourism and Special Events put on its annual Boston GospelFest at City Hall Plaza. And because Gospelfest was a public and taxpayer-funded community event, it was open to all, including its Black LGBTQ+ community. However, when gospel singer and minister Donnie McClurkin was billed as the headliner in 2010, many of us in the Black LGBTQ+ community decided not to attend the event. And neither did Menino.
Menino ranked among the most pro-LGBTQ+ mayors in the country. He refused to participate in Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade when organizers barred an LGBTQ+ group from joining the procession. Menino blocked the Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A chain from setting up shop in Boston because of its homophobic remarks. He was always an advocate for marriage equality. He attended our gay pride parades and was there for us during the AIDS crisis. Menino used his power and advocacy on behalf of LGBTQ+ civil rights, and he succeeded in most instances.
However, when it came to persuading many of Boston’s Black ministers on LGBTQ+ civil rights, Menino’s struggle had been and was like that of other elected officials and queer activists–immovable. Sadly, many of Boston’s Black ministers were in lockstep with conservative ministers across the country.
Menino’s absence from the 2010 Gospelfest was another sad example of how Boston’s Black ministers, an influential and powerful political voting bloc of the mayor’s, would rather compromise its decades-long friendship with City Hall than denounce McClurkin’s appearance, putting the mayor between a rock and a hard place with LGBTQ+ and African American communities, especially its Black LGBTQ community.
For many in the Black LGBTQ+ community, we, too, along with our heterosexual Christian brothers and sisters, excitedly await Boston’s annual Gospelfest. The event brought together large gatherings of Black churchgoing Christians across Greater Boston, regardless of denominational affiliation, in fellowship with one another. For many Black heterosexual Christians, Gospelfest was a second worship service for the day because it was always held on a Sunday after church. However, for many black LGBTQ+ Christians, Gospelfest was our only worship service for the year. With too few Black “open and welcoming” churches in Greater Boston, Gospelfest afforded many of us in our Black LGBTQ+ communities a sweet moment — as unabashedly Christians and unapologetically LGBTQ+ — corporate worship and celebration with our faith communities in an inclusive and public space.
“God did not call you to such perversions. Your only hope is Jesus Christ. Were it not for this Jesus, I would be a homosexual today. This God is a deliverer” was just an example of the continuous flow of McClurkin’s homophobic remarks stated at the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) 102nd Holy Convocation International Youth Department Worship Service in November 2009, just months before being invited to Gospelfest.
Julie Burns, the then-director of Arts, Tourism and Special Events for the Mayor’s Office, was unaware of McClurkin’s anti-gay rhetoric. When Burns called me on June 24 about the McClurkin kerfuffle with Gospelfest just weeks away, she was apologetic.
“I learned yesterday — through the Phoenix article regarding the City of Boston Gospel Fest — of the depth and breadth of Donnie McClurkin’s views on the Gay community. I am embarrassed to say that I was not aware of this, and we obviously should have vetted him further. Gospel Fest is in its 10th year and is arguably the largest Gospel event in New England. Minister McClurkin was recommended to us by a number of people, and we were swayed by his artistic honors. Please rest assured that Mayor Menino did not know anything about this and would never condone ‘hate speech’ of any kind,” Burns wrote in an email to me.
Menino received pushback from many of those ministers. However, because of his unwavering commitment to equality for all, we had a friend in Menino.
The Reverend Monroe is an ordained minister, religion columnist and motivational speaker.
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