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Chicago's Anti-Gay Rev. Wilfredo De Jesus Drops Out of Mayoral Race

Add the Rev. Wilfredo De Jesus to the growing list of those pulling out of the race to replace Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley.

The influential anti-gay evangelical mega-church pastor folded his long-shot mayoral campaign and endorsed pro-LGBT Gery Chico for mayor, reports the Tribune.

Chico stood with the minister at his Humboldt Park New Life Covenant Church to receive the endorsement. De Jesus had been running for mayor, but did not register any sizeable support in the Tribune’s last poll. In a statement from the Chico campaign, De Jesus said he is backing Mayor Daley’s former chief of staff and Board of Education president because he feels Chico is the most qualified for the job. De Jesus said that the two share a commitment to jobs, fighting poverty and homelessness.

The Sun-Times adds: "De Jesus was losing his battle to prove he had gathered enough signatures to stay on the ballot and a Board of Elections hearing officer recommended he be removed."

In 2009, Daley considered appointing Jesus to the vacant 26th Ward alderman seat. De Jesus' candidacy was promoted by the outgoing alderman but later rejected by Daley after heated opposition from Chicago's LGBT leaders. The previous year, De Jesus made national headlines with his opposition to Chicago's proposed gay high school.

Two major mayoral candidates also withdrew in the past two weeks: Veteran progressive/pro-equality Rep. Danny Davis and outspoken anti-gay mega-church pastor and Illinois State Sen. James T. Meeks, who was the only black legislator voting against the recent landmark vote on civil unions.

Some Background...
Anti-Gay Pastor: Beliefs Will Not Influence Role as Alderman
Anti-Gay Minister Appointed as a Chicago Alderman?
Opposition Grows to Anti-Gay Rev. De Jesus as Alderman
Anti-Gay Rev. Wilfredo De Jesus to Run for Mayor?
Danny Davis Drops Out of Chicago Mayor's Race
Anti-Gay Rev. Meeks Withdraws from Chicago Mayor's Race

Chicago's Anti-Gay Rev. Wilfredo De Jesus to Run for Mayor?

Add the name of Rev. Wilfredo De Jesus to the growing list of those looking to replace Chicago's outgoing Mayor Richard M. Daley. The influential anti-gay evangelical mega-church pastor will reportedly announce his candidacy this Thursday, reports WBEZ radio.

R20 readers may recall in the summer of 2009, Daley considered appointing Jesus to the vacant 26th Ward alderman seat. De Jesus' candidacy was promoted by the outgoing alderman but later rejected by Daley after heated opposition from Chicago's LGBT leaders. The previous year, De Jesus made national headlines with his opposition to Chicago's proposed gay high school, which he railed against as "a form of segregation."

De Jesus is the senior pastor of the 4,000-member New Life Covenant Ministries—"one of the world’s largest Assemblies of God congregations"—and is reportedly using his evangelical base to network with churches and launch a mayoral campaign. " De Jesús supporters have also quietly begun to collect signatures to get him on the February ballot, sources say."

In other news on anti-gay mega-church pastors running for Chicago mayor: State Sen. James Meeks the senior pastor of Salem Baptist Church on the city's far South Side, is reportedly circumventing the "consensus" process started by the city's Black leaders. "I don't want to be the black candidate," Meeks told Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell. "If that group thinks I am the best person, good. But I don't want to be their candidate.

"Details" Goes Behind the Scenes at a Gay Teen "Exorcism"

Details' Matt McAllester goes behind-the-scenes at the harmful and controversial practice of performing "exorcisms" of gay demons. These so-called "deliverances" are often performed in Pentecostal and evangelical churches on LGBT youth, such as 20-year-old Kevin Robinson.

"You need to be delivered from homosexuality," the prophet said into a microphone so that all the church could hear. Kevin was embarrassed, but he stayed put. This was no normal preacher—she spoke God's truth. According to church dogma, homosexuality is a sin foisted on humans by demons who take possession of their bodies and compel them to act against God's will. These evil spirits can be exorcised by those trained in spiritual warfare in a ritual known among Pentecostal Christians as deliverance. Perhaps, Kevin thought, this prophet could finally deliver him from his demons.

The prophet placed her hands on Kevin and began to pray over him. "Come out, come out!" she shouted. "In the name of Jesus, I command you to come out! You gonna free him right now!"

Kevin closed his eyes, thinking to himself, "There's something wrong with me; I need to change." A part of him believed this prophet could do what no one else had been able to do during previous deliverance attempts—make him heterosexual. But the prophet was loud and she looked at him with disgust and contempt as her chants became more and more belligerent. Even now Kevin can't bring himself to repeat the most hurtful things she said. He soon began to cry. And then, with the prophet still exhorting the demons in him to depart, he blacked out and collapsed. ... It was, by Kevin's count, at least the 10th time since he was 16 that he'd subjected himself to gay exorcism.

Kevin Robinson's church is not in the Bible Belt and is located in Massachusetts, where marriage equality is the law.

You may recall last June, a video of a black charismatic church performing an exorcism on a gay teenager in Bridgeport, Connecticut—another gay friendly state with marriage equality—appeared on YouTube. The Connecticut Department of Children and Families investigated Manifested Glory Ministries but no charges were brought. The 16-year-old later appeared on Tyra Banks and claims he has been "healed" by the exorcism and is no longer gay.

And a special note: Details interviews DL Foster, the black Atlanta-based so-called "ex-gay" minister who admits that he still has "homosexual desires." You can say that again, "DL".

Zambian Bishop and Political Parties Reject Gay Rights as "Outrageous"

Yet another round of anti-gay hysteria in Zambia. Clergy and politicians in the Southern African nation—which boasts a 16 percent HIV rate and is one of the world's poorest nations—are "outraged" after international donors suggested the mineral-rich Southern African nation should relax its harsh anti-gay laws.

Two Pentecostal bishops said gays were "unacceptable" in Zambian society, reports Behind the Mask.

"Assemblies of God Bishop Joshua Banda has advised the donor community to channel their funds to development programmes rather than supporting practises such as homosexuality that are alien to the Zambian society. And Bishop Joe Imakando of Bread of Life Church International said homosexuals and lesbians had no room in society because Zambia had been declared a Christian nation. In an interview in Lusaka yesterday Bishop Banda said it was unacceptable for some donor agencies to be considering funding such acts, which were of little benefit to the majority of Zambians. He condemned the decision by some donor countries such as the Swedish government coming out in the open and supporting such acts, which were against the traditional values of the country."

You may recall in March 2009, Vice President George Kaduna told members of parliament and journalists to "report any homosexuals" to the police. 

Meanwhile: Zambia's three dominant political parties reject calls to decriminalize gay sex and call the suggestion an "abomination", reports Lusaka Times.

"The MMD and United Party for National Development (UPND) said separately in Lusaka ythat Zambia was declared a Christian nation and the issue of homosexuality had no room in this society. But the Patriotic Front (PF) said it had not dealt with the matter because it was concentrating on more important issues. MMD acting spokesperson Mike Mulongoti said the ruling party could not embrace or support the gay rights because the party was founded on Christian norms. 'Zambia is declared a Christian nation and anything that is unChristian and alien to our society is deemed to be an abomination,' Mr Mulongoti said. ... PF spokesperson Given Lubinda said his party would not preoccupy itself with less pressing issues because it was currently more concerned with the welfare of the people."

And they're doing a heckuva job, too. In recent weeks the Zambian government is reeling after human rights agencies described its prisons as "death traps" of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, where inmates were "packed like pigs" and "commonly stripped naked and held ...in ankle-to-calf-high water contaminated with their own excrement."

Priorities, priorities.

You May Have Missed:
Zambian VP: Report Homosexuals to Police

WATCH: 19YO "Prophet" Brian Carn Rants Against "Perverted" Gays

Brian Carn is a very popular 19-year-old self-described "prophet" who has fused the best (and worst) of old school Pentecostal tent revivals with 21st century social networking. In this clip the Jacksonville, Florida-based evangelist shares one of his latest epiphanies ... that the black church has becoming too "welcoming to homosexuals".

Says the teenage "prophet": "I had a vision. And in my vision, I saw him [the pastor] in his home. And in his home I saw him smoking a cigarette. And I saw two homosexual guys, on his right and on his left. And... in the vision, I left his house and went to the service. He was preaching and people were going crazy, he was so good. But then I went back in the vision and saw him leave the church and go back to the house. With a boy on the right and a boy on the left, smoking a cigarette. I came out the vision and said, 'Lord, what is this?' He said it's the spirit of perversion in my house."

Carn adds that he returned (in real life) to this particular pastor's service and was crying because the black church has become "so perverted and deceived".

True, there are any number of pastors who rant against gays by day and creep on the down-low at night. But has this "perversion" taken over the black church? And are so many black churches now "welcoming homosexuals" and pushing for our rights?  Kids say the darndest things. Watch the clip AFTER THE JUMP ...

"The New Yorker" Profiles Tonex

Brilliant. The New Yorker profiles Tonex, the Stellar Award-winning gospel singer/songwriter and minister who recently confirmed his long-rumored sexuality. Tonex became the first to do so in black gospel music and shattered its well-guarded glass closet doors.

Kelefa Sanneh writes (pdf): "Many of his fans wondered what took him so long. Maybe some of them wondered, too, what took gospel music so long, because the question that Tonéx finally answered has been haunting the genre for for the better part of a century."

Tonex, who grew up in the anti-gay and charismatic Pentecostal Assemblies of the World (P.A.W.) and is the son of pastor, describes trying to come out:

Tonéx sensed early on that he was attracted to other boys, and he spent the better part of three decades trying to figure out what that might mean for him. One day when he was eighteen, he told his parents that he thought he was bisexual. His father said, “You need to go listen to some gospel records,” and his mother just cried. Not long afterward, Pastor Williams preached a sermon in which he decried “faggots.” (The next week, Pastor Williams apologized to the congregation for his choice of words.) Tonéx says, “Perhaps he thought that by speaking on it so harshly it would make me turn the other way.” When Tonéx started preaching, he occasionally denounced homosexuality, too, partly because such denunciations work so well. “You can talk about a slut, a hussy, a heifer, a player, any other subject— you are not going to get the response you get when you start talking about fags, or gays,” he says. “It’s like a football game!”

Given the proliferation of gay men in black gospel music, it's ironic that Tonex's father prescribed listening "to some gospel records" to cure his homosexuality. And Tonex is right, there's nothing like good ole-fashioned gay-bashing to motivate many so-called "Christians" and church folk.

The profile appears in the current February 8 issue of The New Yorker. At ten pages, it's not a quick read but is captivating and should be required reading. It's also to The New Yorker's credit that they took on the black church's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" hypocrisy around gays in the church.  The article is subscription only but a PDF is here. Love to hear your thoughts.

The New Yorker: Revelations [pdf]

Some Background:
Tonex on Black Church's Hypocrisy on Gays
Gospel Singer Deitrick Haddon: "Not a Sissy Bone in My Body"
WATCH: Gospel Star Tonex Confirms Same Sex Attraction

Nevada Brothels Are Now Open to Male Prostitutes

Male prostitutes are now eligible to work at Nevada's legal brothels after health codes were amended, reports the Las Vegas Sun.

A brothel industry lobbyist—in what could be considered a befuddling double standard—bemoaned the change, comparing it to the industry’s “Pearl Harbor.” He managed to voice concerns about homosexual sex entering the industry without ever saying "gay sex" or "homosexual." Men were previously barred in Nevada from the oldest profession because codes specified that prostitutes must undergo “cervical” testing for sexually transmitted diseases, which ruled out men.

Bobbi Davis, owner of the Shady Lady Ranch, a small brothel near Beatty, wanted to add male prostitutes to her stable of sex workers. And while there have been plans for brothels to hire men in the past, Davis made the first-ever request to have the Nevada State Board of Health add urethral exams to the guidelines. That allows male sex workers to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases. George Flint, the former Assemblies of God minister who has been lobbying for the Nevada Brothel Owners Association for 24 years, said he “reluctantly—and I underscore reluctantly” agrees to the change.

Men could start working at brothels as soon as the New Year. Male sex workers will be allowed to decide whether to accept male or female clients, just as the female prostitutes do now.

The former Assemblies of God minister turned whorehouse lobbyist "reluctantly agrees" to allow male hookers in brothels. So much for the "'sanctity" of prostitution.

Vallejo, California Mayor Faces Backlash After Anti-Gay Remarks

The evangelical Christian mayor of Vallejo, California, is under fire after calling gay and lesbians "sinful".

In an article about the escalating tensions between recent gay arrivals and evangelicals in the Bay Area city, the New York Times quoted Vallejo Mayor Osby Davis as saying: "They're committing sin and that sin will keep them out of heaven. But you don't hate the person. You hate the sin that they commit."

Davis, who is a lawyer, is a devout follower of the charismatic Assemblies of God and advertises himself as a "Christian attorney". Two years ago, Davis won a bitter mayoral race by just two votes in a recount over an openly gay candidate. On Top Magazine reports: "Several gay candidates say the city is replete with anti-gay sentiment. They point to prayer circles formed outside the City Council chamber and political 'faith forums' hosted by a coalition of local churches."

One outraged Vallejo resident told KTVU: "It's not okay for him to say that. That's his own personal belief and it's shocking to hear someone say that, especially today in California and Vallejo as diverse as it is."

The mayor offered an "apology" and says his remarks were taken out of context. Gay activists in the city are not impressed. They will push for the mayor's censure and a demonstration is planned for December 1. Watch a news report WHEN YOU JUMP.