The Rev. Patrick J. Walker, President of Baptist Convention of the District of Columbia and Vicinity, who was quoted in the same Christian Post article this week as yours truly, is strongly condemning Mayor Gray’s discrimination of Grammy award winning gospel singer Donnie McClurklin. In the Christian Post article, Walker said the following:

“Mayor Gray continually purports that he supports civil rights. What we’ve come to know, however, is that all civil rights in the faith community are not created equal. This is an outright infringement of Pastor McClurkin’s civil rights. How ironic is that? What kind of ‘peace,’ exactly, are we, in the nation’s capital, reflecting? Mayor Gray is the mayor for all of the people of the District of Columbia, not just the few who agree with him. This was a demonstration of the mayor’s insidious bullying tactics. [He] has systematically and deliberately done everything possible to strike at the fabric of the faith community – at least the sector of us who opposed his views.”

On Monday, Walker released the following statement on behalf of the African-American faith community in Washington, DC that advocated for McClurklin:

The question still remains as to whether the D.C. Office of Human Rights will actually implement these laws and force Mayor Gray to comply with his own order, which forbids the District government and its agencies from discriminating against persons on the basis of sexual orientation. The order reads: “The Director of the D.C. Office of Human Rights, or the designee thereof, is authorized and directed to implement this Order and to monitor the compliance of executive departments and agencies with its directives.”

After seeking further comment from the D.C. Office of Human Rights about their enforcement of the Mayor’s order earlier this week, this is the response I was given:

“We avoid commenting on cases that could potentially come before us, as our office needs to remain neutral on cases until they are fully investigated and a full legal analysis is conducted. We provided the earlier statement because we wanted to ensure your readers were informed that identifying as ex-gay is considered a sexual orientation under the DC Human Rights Act, as decided on in the 2009 DC Superior Court case, but we cannot provide much comment beyond that at this point.”

While we appreciate their communication, we would like the D.C. Office of Human Rights to be more aggressive in publicly enforcing the Mayor’s order of non-discrimination for ex-gays. If they are indeed neutral, they should have no problem doing this.

Christopher Doyle is the President and Co-Founder of Voice of the Voiceless. The only anti-defamation league for former homosexuals, individuals with unwanted same-sex attractions, and their families. For more information, visit: www.VoiceoftheVoiceless.info