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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPharrell Williams and stars from 'Hidden Figures' condemn 'hateful comments'
Gospel singer Kim Burrell calls homosexuality 'perverted,' Pharrell Williams and stars from 'Hidden Figures' condemn 'hateful comments'
Gospel singer Kim Burrell labeled homosexuality perverted in a sermon she gave in her other life as a Pentecostal preacher, quickly eliciting responses from both Pharrell Williams, with whom she sings on the Hidden Figures soundtrack, and two stars from that film, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe.
Burrell and Williams were originally scheduled to perform the soundtrack song I See a Victory, on which he is also a producer, on The Ellen Show on Thursday, with Monáe also slated to appear as a guest.
But on Tuesday morning, show host Ellen DeGeneres announced on Twitter that Burrell would not join Monáe and Williams on Thursdays show.
I came to tell you about sin, Burrell said in the recent sermon at the Houston church she founded and where she is pastor, Love and Liberty Fellowship Church International. That perverted homosexual spirit, and the spirit of delusion and confusion, it has deceived many men and women.
A firestorm of criticism was touched off when video of the sermon began to circulate and Burrell took to Facebook Live to add, There are a lot of people that Im aware of that struggle or deal [with] or have that spirit. Have I discriminated against them? Have I ever outright told them that I dont love you and you going to hell?
I dont give that call.
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This is a shameful situation for two reasons, the first being the obvious homophobic rhetoric and hate, and the second is the potential it has to mar what could be a great movie, certainly one of historic importance.
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Please read this article!
Black women who helped put America in space get their day onscreen
As if to ensure the 2016 Oscar nominations dont come out as white as Santas beard, three fine films about African-Americans in the late 50s and early 60s have come out in the last eight weeks: Loving, Fences and Hidden Figures.
The last, which is the least overtly emotional, makes subtle points while depicting three women who helped NASA enter the space race with the Soviet Union. Most people who watched John Glenn become the first man to orbit the Earth multiple times myself included, as a boy in 1962 had no idea such women put him up there safely.
Director Theodore Melfi wrote the screenplay with Allison Schroder, adapting Margot Lee Shetterlys book. They never overstress a scene: Whites working around black colleagues are quietly dismissive but not overtly cruel, and a Virginia police officer who finds the trio stranded by the roadside is suspicious but not vicious. The movie indicts exclusion and racial hierarchy without finding villains inside that system.
Figures takes place at Langley Air Force Base, as officials make calculations for launches at Cape Canaveral. Math prodigy Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson) crunches numbers at amazing speed, but shes more than a human computer in a pre-IBM age. Her insights into patterns go beyond those of male co-workers, and her boss (lethargic Kevin Costner) figures that out.
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Hidden Figures is a crowd-pleaser with math appeal
area51
(11,920 posts)ignoring the other parts of Leviticus that they don't like.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Behind the Aegis
(53,987 posts)There is a link in LBN about it. I am glad people are saying "NO!" to this bigoted woman. What I am unhappy with, but surprised by, is people are, again, equating her homophobia with "secret desires to be a lesbian". I am 'surprised' because I rarely ever see this when a homophobic woman is central to the story, but almost every...fucking...time the homophobe is a man. It seems some heterosexuals have a difficult time accepting there are actual homophobes in the world who are 'secret homos'. Personally, I see such accusations as homophobic. Are racists that way because they "secretly" desire to be another ethnicity? Are anti-Semites that way because they "secretly" desire to be Jews? No. And while there are certainly cases where some homophobes are closeted, people have to accept that homophobia is not a "gay" problem, other than we are the victims of it.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Being a space nerd I do really want to see the movie, though.
dembotoz
(16,832 posts)actually more than i wanna see any movie this winter.
no singer i never heard of singing music i really detest is gonna change that.....
i generally support the gay community and boycott when appropriate, i anticipate i will still see this movie