Last week, there was a tad bit of controversy (and a dollop of confusion) over the Harlem Pride event scheduled for the last weekend in June. The weekend-long celebration of gay pride in Harlem left some local pastors frothing at the mouth that "the homosexual agenda will do nothing but harm the community." But not everyone is intimidated by the rainbow: "My church will be there in full force," said openly gay Pastor Joseph Tolton.
Tolton told the News that 90 percent of his congregation at Rehoboth Temple Christ Conscious Church are members of the LGBT community. He added that he wants to host a service in Marcus Garvey Park during the weekend, which Harlem Pride organizer Carmen Neely confirmed was something they were discussing. Tolton also extended an invitation to those pastors and Harlem residents who compared homosexuality with pedophilia or bestiality: "They need to come. They need to see us worship."
Watch a video of Tolton discussing the importance of having the event in Harlem below: "we're proud not only of our race, we're proud of who we are as gay and lesbian people."
Three more pastors all added their support to the event, and criticized the pastors who were against it: "It's a free country and they certainly have every right to be in the park. Spewing out venom like that does not help to foster the kind of communal spirit that we so desperately need," said Rev. Calvin Butts of Abyssinian Baptist Church. Rev. Earl Kooperkamp of St. Mary's Episcopal Church said he was happy his parishioners would be able to take part in a gay pride event uptown for once: "Now we don't have to go all the way downtown, we can celebrate gay pride right here in the neighborhood. I think it's a good thing."
Rev. Michael Walrond Jr. of First Corinthian Baptist Church tried to explain why those other pastors were so venomously against the event: "It takes no courage to stand in the firing line to shoot people down...they are afraid of someone labeling them."
