This Cannot (SHOULD NOT) Be Happening

[Content Note: Homophobia; misogyny; gender essentialism.]

Four years ago, then President-Elect Barack Obama chose the odious megachurch megamonster Rick Warren, professional homophobe and misogynist, to deliver the invocation at his inauguration. It was Obama's contemptible statement defending that choice in which he famously declared himself a "fierce advocate" for gay rights:

I think that it is no secret that I am fierce advocate for equality for gay and lesbian Americans. It is something that I have been consistent on and something that I intend to continue to be consistent on during my presidency.

I don't imagine that any of us expected, particularly after the President personally affirmed his support of marriage equality, consistency in extending invitations to virulently anti-gay Christians to do the invocations at his inaugurals.

The Presidential Inauguration Committee announced Tuesday that the President Obama has selected Pastor Louie Giglio of the Georgia-based Passion City Church to deliver the benediction for his second inauguration. In a mid-1990s sermon identified as Giglio's, available online on a Christian training website, he preached rabidly anti-LGBT views. The 54-minute sermon, entitled "In Search of a Standard – Christian Response to Homosexuality," advocates for dangerous "ex-gay" therapy for gay and lesbian people, references a biblical passage often interpreted to require gay people be executed, and impels Christians to "firmly respond to the aggressive agenda" and prevent the "homosexual lifestyle" from becoming accepted in society.

Wow, he sounds GREAT.

I bet his views on agency and consent are awesome, too.

UPDATE: Via Sky Dancing, there is also this report by Chris Geidner at BuzzFeed of Giglio engaging in some old-fashioned patriarchal gender essentialism:

[Giglio] did reference gender roles in a striking way, speaking of a time he started crying very hard. He explained, "I started bawling, I mean, sobbing. Not crying like men cry. I started crying like women cry." Continuing, he explained what he called the unwritten rules for men who cry, telling the students, "A man never looks at another man that's crying. That's the rule."

One of the most striking images from the President's reelection was his crying as he thanked his campaign staff. Now he's invited a guy to his inaugural who diminishes the strength of male vulnerability, and implicates women as less than in the process.

I am reminded of how Obama invited Warren, even though Warren equated him with a Nazi appeaser for being pro-choice. It's like he still feels obliged to personally win over every asshole who talks shit about him, or the kind of man he clearly aspires to be.

UPDATE 2: Giglio has reportedly been removed from the program. Good.