Obama to gay protesters: Rick Warren's my inauguration pastor pick

No backing down whatsoever today from President-elect Barack Obama in the face of some strong criticism from gay and lesbian interests over his choice of Saddleback's Rick Warren for the invocation speaker at the Jan. 20 inauguration.

As pastor of his mega-church in Lake Forest, Warren was an outspoken proponent of Prop. 8, which passed on Nov. 4 and overturns a court decision allowing same-sex marriage in California.

As The Ticket reported earlier today, gay and lesbian groups, which had been key backers of Obama but largely silent on his ostentatious other moves toward the political center since winning the White House, erupted in a loud chorus of opposition to Obama's pick of Warren.

But at another news conference at his transition headquarters in Chicago today, Obama held firm, saying an important premise of his entire campaign was that different sides can disagree on some issues without being disagreeable and unable to work together on others. After all, last spring he claimed he attended the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church for 20 years while disagreeing with his radical sermons, which he also said he hadn't heard.

He said he maintains his consistent support for equal rights for gays and lesbians. And he's not changing his choice of who gives the opening prayer at his historic Inauguration on the Capitol steps the morning of Jan. 20.

We'll let the president-elect speak for himself on this breaking news video just below here.

-- Andrew Malcolm

All sides welcome to register here for cellphone alerts on each new Ticket item. RSS feeds are also available here. And we're on Amazon's Kindle too.

Photo credit: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Judi Mills]

I'm tired after spending a couple hours online posting my opinion on this, so I'll just say that I back Obama's chioce of Warren.

I'm a moderate Democrat with a couple of gay friends, and I'll tell you what I have told them: marriage is a religious institution, and the popular religious stance on homosexuality is anti. Therefore, the best approach is a law that grants a civil union every benefit of marriage, all of it. And churches should grant religious gays the right to go to heaven with the rest of us by recognizing that civil union and giving it their blessing. That way gays have a legal partnership and the blessing of their church.

Is that so hard?

[Rosie Callender]

I was not happy when I heard the news concerning the man President-elect chose to give a payer on inauguration. However, after I throught it through I had to amitt that Obama promise to be president to all Americans. I am not please, but I can live with the chioce. I still love you Obama.

[marinelurp]

Well we all know that some people were already "thrown Under the Bus":

“Throooow ‘em Under the Bus”
By Marinelurp

When the going gets tough,
When mud ‘n slander flies thick.
And the sh*t is hitting the fan,
Someone’s really rockin’ the boat,
Trying to hijack Hope and Change.
Wha’ cha gonna do? Wha’ cha gonna say?

You Beeeetter(slowly):

(Chorus)
Throw ‘em, under the Bus,
Toss ‘em, under the Bus,
Cover your Ass! Try to distance yourself!
Just grab ‘em by the neck,
and throw ‘em, throw ‘em
Under the Bus!

When things got too close on poor Barry,
He put the blame on ole Grannie.
“Just a Typical-White Person”,
Who walked in fear, spouting racial slurs .
Could not disown her, That wouldn’t be Wright.
But the One thing he could do, WAS:

(Chorus)

When his spiritual mentor got too loud,
Acting like an ‘embarrassing uncle’.
For awhile the ONE made excuses.
But the videos on YouTube were too much.
First the pastor, then the church,
Were too inconvenient and controversial.
They Haaaaad to:

(Chorus)
Throw ‘em all, under the Bus,
Toss ‘em, under the Bus,
Cover your Ass! Try to distance yourself!
Just grab ‘em all by the neck,
and throw ‘em, throw ‘em
Under the Bus!

Obama threw gay activists under the bus today,
Pandering to Christians, at his inauguration.
Paster Rick, (where’s Wright?), will give the invocation.
So, instead of advancing gay-equality,
Gays are furious, it’s a depressing omen,
Time to sober up, and face the awful truth.
You’ve beeen:

Thrown Under the Bus,
Tossed Under the Bus,
Cover your tracks, Try to distance yourself!
Just grab ‘em ALL by the necks,
and throw ‘em, throw ‘em
Under the Bus!

(Open Source Song- Please feel free to modify or add)

[Ray Carioscia]

As a gay man who strongly supported Obama in word and in deed and in contributions, I am highly offended by his choice of Rick Warren as one of the pastors offering prayers at the inauguration. Why not the head of the
KKK, or some other Anti Black group sharing the celebrations. It is as offensive to gay people as it is to
blacks and I think Obama is being totally insentive. Did
Warren and his religious right support Obama? Sure they did. Very disappointed Obama.

[Tim]

OK, now I understand Obama's deafening silence after Prop 8 passed. I thought it was that he'd spoken out of both sides of his mouth on the issue and it embarrassed him. Now the truth comes out. I guess it wasn't all that "courageous" of Obama to debate McCain at Saddleback Church after all. Another staged campaign event played to the hilt. Well, Mr. President-Elect, you fooled me once. I won't be fooled again. You haven't even been sworn in yet and I'm done with you. Good luck fixing this broken nation, so far your talk about bringing people together is only driving people further apart.

[Monica]

I'm starting to think Obama doesn't really like gays. Along with this pick of Warren as invocation speaker, he also chose Representative Hilda Solis for Labor Secretary over the equally qualified and openly gay Mary Beth Maxwell. Where's the "new day" Obama?

[Nathan]

Good for Obama. It's about time that people with strong views on these divisive issues realized they can't get their way by silencing, rather than engaging, those on the other side. Too many politicians act like whoever disagrees with them on anything is some slimy villain to be shunned and despised. In that regard, at least, Obama is a breath of fresh air.

[Felix]

Why not have David Duke play a high-profile role of honor in the solemn Inauguration ceremony. Just because Obama disagrees with him "on certain social issues" (such as the genetic equality of African-Americans) doesn't mean his voice shouldn't be heard in the festivities, right?

Or is it just bigots who would deprive gay people of their fundamental human rights that he thinks should be so honored?

[Tracy]

Quite frankly, all this pick did was prove to me what I'd suspected all along: Obama used the LGBT community as a piggy bank and has no intention of doing anything to help us move closer to equality. Whenever he needs to appear "centrist" all he has to do is slap gays and lesbians around a bit and the evangelicals will coo in approval. Neat.

If Rick Warren had been anti-black people or anti-Semitic there is no way he would've been included. But being anti-gay is okay.

This was a very clear signal from the president-elect and it's not in favor of gay rights. Message received, loud and clear.

[ducdebrabant]

Of course he isn't backing down. Refusing to honor the feelings of gays and lesbians is precisely the point. There's nothing uncalculating about any of this.

Obama is not (as his own words maintain) a "fierce advocate" of equality for gay people. He is a half-hearted and occasional one.

He has advocated equality (or contends he has; he doesn't support marriage equality) in a perfunctory fashion, and from time to time does something equal and opposite to dramatize just how in the tank for gay equality he absolutely is not.

Anybody who thought the "mistake" of inviting anti-gay "ex-gay" preacher Donnie McClurkin to entertain at an Obama rally in North Carolina wouldn't be repeated -- or that it was a mistake at all -- now knows better.

Like his inaugural plans, it was rather a calculated public insult to reassure homophobes that Obama doesn't really care for gay people very much. Both of these are Obama's Sistah Souljah moments towards the gay community.

The inaugural invocation will be given by a man who considers the unions of gay people to be exactly the same as the marriage of brother and sister, or the marriage of an adult to a ten year old.

In likening gay relationships to incest and child abuse, Warren is undoubtedly aware that those things are not only unsupported by marriage statutes, but illegal in themselves in virtually every state.

If he thinks gay relationships are morally identical, he presumably believes gay and lesbian relationships should be punishable by statute.

Obama never breathed a word of displeasure when his own voice was used on pro Proposition 8 ads denouncing gay marriage. Not only doesn't it bother him much that he should be thought to oppose any equality for gay people, he sometimes seems to create that impression on purpose, using the excuse of "inclusiveness."

Here he carefully includes -- not a preacher who opposes gay unions in moderate terms like his own -- but somebody who rails against gays and lesbians in exactly the same way as James Dobson.

Obama says he owes Warren this high profile honor because Warren entertained him at Saddleback, but if Warren were as openly anti-Semitic or racist as he is openly contemptuous of gay people, I wonder if Obama would have accepted an invitation from Warren, let alone tendered him one.

Inclusivity ends someplace. We don't include Klansmen or other white supremacists. We wouldn't invite a Jew-hating Farrakhan to deliver an invocation. I think Obama really would be fierce opponent of something like that.

Gays and lesbians are the last minority in America to see those who advocate their utter subjection under the law elevated to the highest status in the land.

[Chris Sullivan]

OK Obama, now I am waiting to hear which racist speaker you are going to include - because hey, that's just "another point of view". No? I didn't think so. HYPOCRITE!

[rrowleyarizona]

I'm waiting to see who he puts up there to praise Nazi Germany and Adolph Hitler.

Personally, considering Obama's slap in the face by way of calling on this bigot Warren, I intend to turn to something important on television on Inauguration night in protest. Rather than the Inauguration I suggest that we all watch something like "Bewitched".

[steve rodriguez]

So the gay community equates Pastor Rick Warren
with the KKK or some anti-Black group! The gay community is so hateful and disorriented! Pastor Rick Warren is no different in his Biblical belief than any other evangelical pastor in the country of for that matter in the world!!!!!

[Meaghan]

Oh, gee whiz. Just because he's assigned a pastor who was for Prop 8 for his inaugeration, doesn't mean he was for it as well. And it doesn't MATTER, because this is AMERICA- where everyone has the right to their opinion...right?

[Cheryl]

Gays and Lesbians,

What else do you want? You want to be married, you want everyone to except your lifestyle, you want Obama to pick people who are openly gay to fill his cabinet, you want him to pick a pastor who agrees with everything you do...yada, yada! Look, Obama is trying to make not only his cabinet, but his inauguration as diverse as possible. I'm sure there's a gay and or lesbian involved in the inauguration and or cabinet as well. Just because he picks Rick Warren to say an opening prayer...this means his hates gays and lesbians? Come on! He believes everyone should have equal rights so I guess that means "you guys" also. Hey, can't we all just get along...we can agree to disagree...I think this is the atmosphere Obama wants to portray not only with his cabinet but the inaguration as well.

[Isa Hackett]

HOPE for change? I think not! I am sad to say that I have lost hope in Obama. On the heels of the passage of prop 8 -- still stinging for many, he gives Rick Warren the great privilege of leading the Country in prayer? Is this a reward for his hard work in hurting gay and lesbian families? (His church does not even allow gays and lesbians to become members unless they disavow their homosexuality.) So Obama calls it a "difference of opinion" when people ACT to take civil rights from groups? Apparently, only when it is the Gay and Lesbian group. It is discrimination -period. Shame on Obama for supporting this discrimination. And shame on him for supporting the use of religion to deny ANY group their civil rights.

[Kevin]

Just another part of America- a man who equates me, my husband and our beautiful son, our family with pedophiles, just another part of America. President Obama is incredibly callous.

[Simple truth]

Marriage = union between one man and one woman.
Every human is born with the right to marry and this
constitutes a example of universal equality and fainess.
Any other union may be legitimate but does not qualify as
marriage. The people have spoken repeatedly on this
unshakable reality...let's moove on as only anarchy can
result from the continued debate of this non issue.

[ohmom]

Goodness, what is all the hub bub? The man is only saying a prayer at the inauguration. He is not appointing him to a cabinet position. I don't think this means Obama is going to "change" anything he has said. I don't even like Obama or Warren for that matter. I have her so much about the hatred of Christians towards the "gay community" sounds like "they" are pretty hateful too.

[Rev Ray Bagnuolo]

There are enough religious leaders who embrace broad inclusivity that Mr. Obama could have engaged for his invocation. As a Presbyterian mnister, ordained as an openly gay man, I don't need someone who is just like me - or just like anyone else for that matter - to be chosen by the president-elect. However, after this election, this historic election that has done more to take down ancient and violent boundaries between us - why ask someone who raises God in one hand and puts down sisters and brothers with the other? It seems unlike Mr. Obama to intensify a division and invite more marginalization with such a choice. It seems inclusivity, even for our next president, includes some and not others. If the heads of the auto industry flying into Washington in their private jets were a symbol of being out-of-touch, so, too, is a new administration seeking a blessing from such a polarizing individual. Perhaps it just takes leaders a while longer to get the nuances of their actions, outside of their inner circles. I pray for a time when those circles and the injustices their insulation fuels become real and open places of welcoming and justice for all.

[Melissa]

Personally, I don't understand why anyone in Hollywood feels that the rest of the world should care what their position is on a given topic. I mean, just because they're in a flick or run a production unit or studio, does that make them more knowledgeable or their opinions more important on the issues? And if others disagree with them, so what? Isn't that what Aristotle called hubris? As for Rick Warren, how is a 1X event going to change Obama? For Pete's sake, it's not a cabinet post. Those who defended BHO against the GOP "guilt-by-association" charges with Ayers and Wright are now using that same tactic against him on this issue. How hypocritical is that? Obama never did say that he favored gay marriage, so why the surprise now?

[Reasonable]

I'm amazed that so many people here want to end the divisiveness in America... by excluding the 55% who oppose gay marriage from any meaningful participation in government. Tolerance isn't equating anyone who disagrees with you with the KKK, anti-Semites, or (inevitably) Hitler, as those here do; it's respecting those with whom you disagree. Get over the hate, people, please!

[charlie ponger]

everyon just calm down. I believe what Mr Obama is attempting to do here is bring folks together regardless of their beliefs and perhaps by doing so this could reduce the complete seperations of camps which is more obvious then ever before. For me, the religous right is obsured and irrational but that being said if we do not overcome these rediculous arguments we are doomed as a nation. Our counrty is on the brink of financial disaster, a new president, a some wacky guy doing a prayer... does anyone on the left care about religion all that much anyway?

[Elliot Bassman]

BULLETIN: OBAMA SELLS HIS SOUL TO THE DEVIL!!
BULLETIN: OBAMA'S FIRST MISDTAKE!!
BULLETIN: OBAMA DEFAULTS: BANKRUPT!!
BULLETIN: CLASS ACTION SUIT: OBAMA COMMITS
FRAUD!!
BULLETIN: OBAMA IS HOMOPHOBIC!!
BULLETIN: OBAMA: PORTRAIT OF A CHICAGO POLITICO!!
BULLETIN: OBAMA STEALS FROM THE LGBT
COMMUNITY!!
BULLETIN: OBAMA STEALS THE HUMANITARIAN VOTE!!
BULLETIN: OBAMA BUTTONS BURNED!!
BULLETIN: OBAMA LAUGHS AT THE LGBT!!
BULLETIN: DICK MORRISS SUPPORTS OBAMA!!
BULLETIN: OBAMA BENDS OVER FOR PASTOR
WARREN!!
BULLETIN: OBAMA: FEAR AND TREMBLING BEFORE
GOD!!
BULLETIN: HUMANITARIANS DEMAND CONTRIBUTIONS
BE RETURNED!!
BULLETIN: OBAMA STICKERS, MUGS,T-SHIRTS IN
FORECLOSURE!!
BULLETIN: OBAMA BEGS LGBT COMMUNITY FOR
TRANSITION MONEY!!
BULLETIN: OBAMA'S COFFERS DRY UP AS OBAMA-
WARREN SCANDAL PROLIFERATES!!
BULLETIN: OBAMA SUCCUMBS TO PASTOR WARREN'S
CHURCH'S DEEP THROAT!!
BULLETIN: LATEST TRACKING POLLS: OBAMA : HAS NO
SUPPORT!!
BULLETIN:: MILLIONS OF HUMANITARIANS WILL NOT
WATCH JANUARY 20th CONFLAGRATION!!
BULLETIN: OBAMA CONTINUES BUSH'S DESTRUCTION
OF PRIVACY RIGHTS!!
BULLETIN: REPUBLICANS EXPECT EASY WINS IN
2010 and PROJECT A LANDSLIDE VICTORY
IN 2012.

BULLETIN: OBAMA TERRORIZES LGBT COMMUNITY:
LGBT OVERWHELMS OBAMA TEAM!!

[Gary Barton]

People who think that the Gay and Lesbian reaction to Warren speaking is just because he disagrees about gay marriage are either terribly misinformed or bigots themselves. Warren did not just support and work to prevent gay marriage. He compared gay people to pedophiles . He also does not allow gay people to come to his church. To have someone who is so NON inclusive be delivering the invocation, is so repulsive I can almost not believe it. How would Obama feel if George W had invited someone who compares black people with monkeys. That is also repulsive but no more offensive than Warren's comparison. This is hardly someone who just has a different point of view. This is someone who discruminates in the worst way possible.