Several stars of the film Hidden
Figures are speaking out against gospel singer Kim Burrell, who
last week was caught on tape calling gay people “perverted.”
The video, uploaded Friday, shows
Burrell speaking before her congregation.
“I came to tell you about sin,”
Burrell
screams. “That sin nature, that perverted homosexual spirit,
and the spirit of delusion and confusion, it has deceived many men
and women. You as a man, you open your mouth and take a man’s penis
in your face, you are perverted. You are a woman and will shake your
face in another woman’s breast, you are perverted.”
She said that “anyone filled with the
homosexual spirit” should “beg God” to be free.
Burrell, who appears on the Hidden
Figures soundtrack, is scheduled to perform Thursday on The
Ellen DeGeneres Show with Pharrell Williams. DeGeneres married
her wife in 2008 and is a vocal supporter of LGBT rights.
Without naming Burrell, Williams
condemned “hate speech” in an Instagram post.
“I condemn hate speech of any kind,”
he wrote in black text on a yellow background. “There is no room
in this world for any kind of prejudice. My greatest hope is for
inclusion and love for all humanity in 2017 and beyond.”
Janelle Monáe,
one of the stars of the film, shared Williams' post, adding: “I
shouldn't even have to post this as you guys should already know
where I stand but If you do not pls know I unequivocally repudiate
ANY AND ALL hateful comments against the LGBTQ community. … My
advice: If your religion is causing you to spew out words of hate,
judge, or look down on others because of who one loves, then you need
to change it. And fast. If the religion don't make you [a] more
loving or better person, ditch it.”
Octavia Spencer, who plays
mathematician Dorothy Vaughan in the film, also shared Williams'
statement.
“I agree,” she wrote. “We are
all God's children equal in his eyes. Hatred isn't the answer.
Intolerance isn't the answer.”