A Harlem church known for its
opposition to LGBT rights said this week that it would celebrate a
recent foreclosure decision by burning a rainbow flag in its
courtyard.
“The foreclosure & sale of ATLAH
church has been vacated,” the church said on its sign. “To
celebrate we will burn the fag flag in our courtyard. TBA.”
According to The New York Times,
a judge has blocked a looming foreclosure and sale, but the
underlying issue that spurred the foreclosure – whether the Atlah
Worldwide Church owes the city money for its water and sewer use –
will continue to be debated in the courts. The church claims it does
not owe a $1 million bill because it is tax exempt.
The Ali Forney Center (AFC), a group
dedicated to homeless LGBT youth, has expressed interest in buying
the property.
Carl Siciliano, the group's founder and
executive director, called the church's plan to burn a rainbow flag
“reprehensible, especially in the aftermath of the Orlando
Massacre,” a reference to the 49 people killed over the summer in
an Orlando gay nightclub.
“We plan to surround his church with
rainbow flags, the symbol of our pride as a community to show that
our pride cannot be destroyed, symbolically or otherwise,”
Siciliano said of a planned protest.
James D. Manning, the church's pastor,
is known for his anti-gay rhetoric, which he routinely displays on
his YouTube channel and the church's sign. He is best known for
claiming that Starbucks flavors its lattes with “the semen of
sodomites.”
“Oh, this is the absolute truth,”
he
told viewers in 2014. “My
suspicion is that they're getting this semen from sodomites. And
somebody has discovered that semen, like cord blood, has the
opportunity and it has millions and millions of little zygotes in it
and it flavors up the coffee. And it makes you think you're having a
good time drinking that cup of latte with the semen in it.”
(Related:
Lesbian
asks anti-gay church to stone her.)