President Barack Obama's support for
gay marriage is being compared to white supremacists hostile to the
civil rights movement.
Rev. Bill Owens, who heads the nascent
Coalition of African-American Pastors (CAAP), attracted major
headlines in July when he held a press conference criticizing Obama's
endorsement of gay nuptials.
Appearing on Janet Mefferd's radio show
on Tuesday, Owens once again lashed out against the president.
“I don't think he [considered the
reaction of the African-American community],” Owens said. “I
think he felt that he could continue to do as he's been doing. He'll
take up the cause of the Latinos, he'll take up the cause of the
homosexuals, but it's like the African Americans don't exist. And he
said I'm not the president of the African Americans, I'm the
president of America. What if the white leaders who were in office
when the civil rights bill had passed, what if they had said that,
'We're the politicians for the white community?' We wouldn't have
gotten a right to vote, we wouldn't have gotten the rights we enjoy
today. So we're going to take him on even more, as a matter of fact
this is one of my last interviews until we come out with a new news
conference next week, we're coming out fighting.”
RightWingWatch.org's Brian Tashman
noted that the president in fact said the opposite of what Owens has
claimed.
“[T]hat is the exact opposite message
employed by the white supremacist leaders that Owens compared Obama
to, as Obama said he was the president of all Americans, including
African-Americans,” he
wrote.
Owens added that supporting gay rights
is “like waving your thing in God's face” and that gay nuptials
are “destroying the foundation of the family.”
(Related: Bill
Owens, Harry Jackson orgs receive thousands from gay marriage foe
NOM.)