Homophobic preacher Franklin Graham has sought to distance himself from a career of anti-queer persecution following a boycott by the Seattle Police Department.
Graham had planned a special benefit for the Seattle PD, a dinner wherein members of the force could attend free of charge. Unfortunately, given Graham’s hostility toward LGBTQ people, the Seattle Police and the city itself have criticized the event, going so far as to boycott it.
Graham, for his part, insists the allegations of homophobia are unfounded.
“We’re wanting just to have a dinner, and we’re inviting the police and their spouses … regardless of their religion or their sexual orientation or whatever,” Graham told Christian Headlines. “If you’re a police officer, you and your spouse are invited,” Graham said. “And we’re gonna just have a great time for fellowship, one with another. We’ve got a great speaker. We’ll have live music. But it’ll be just an evening for them. And we’re paying the bill. There’s no charge to them. We just want to encourage them and let them know that we love them, and we support them.”
“I’m not anti-gay,” he then added.
While Graham may feign ignorance of his own long history of homophobia, administrators for the city of Seattle and its police department are better informed.
Upon hearing news of the benefit, Seattle city council president Lorena Gonzalez, called on Police Chief Adrian Diaz and Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan to boycott the event.
Related: Franklin Graham compares Republicans who voted to impeach Trump to Judas
“By promoting this anti-LGBTQ and far-right religious group’s invitation, the Seattle Police Department is undermining Seattle’s LGBTQ community, alienating our own LGBTQ officers, and further eroding public trust and confidence in law enforcement to protect everyone regardless of their religion or identity,” Gonzalez said in a statement, according to local Seattle station KIRO.
Police Chief Diaz shared Gonzalez’s view. In an email to the force, he rescinded the invite on behalf of Graham, in essence, ordering officers not to attend.
“Based on Graham’s history and affiliations, the [invitation] has raised concerns that the SPD may not be committed to the equity of our community’s LGBTQ members,” Diaz wrote. “I want to make clear the department fully supports the equity and just treatment of all people. The SPD did not sponsor this event and is not connected in any way to its hosts. Today I sent a department-wide email to rescind the invitation because its hosts do not share the inclusive values of the SPD.”
Graham may protest allegations of homophobia, but history overrules him. As the son of prominent televangelist Billy Graham, Franklin Graham has spent his career attacking LGBTQ people. Graham had previously praised Donald Trump for barring the pride flag to be flown outside embassies, declared the proposed Stonewall Monument to be a “monument to sin” and called queer people “truth-phobic.” In 2019, he also said that then-Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg would face eternal damnation for being gay. Graham has also advocated conversion therapy in the past. Further proving his disconnect from reality, Graham also attacked Dr. Anthony Faucci during the COVID-19 pandemic for saying Americans should depend on science to survive.
Chrisk
“Graham, for his part, insists the allegations of homophobia are unfounded.”
These shitheads are so used to conning their followers they think everyone must be as gullible.
Kangol2
Franklin Graham, we know your history, you homophobic gremlin, and it’s well documented, so trying to rewrite it isn’t going to work. Go where you belong, straight to HELL.
mark2029
Good jesus loves and forgives
blackhook
LMFAO!!!
Mister P
Uh oh. Critical thinking is bad for the preaching racket.
Fahd
Thank goodness he can’t go around spewing hate and then expect no one to notice when he tries to pretend to be an upstanding community leader. He better make a change or he might face that “eternal damnation” himself.
Mack
Another “BIG LIE” Guess that’s what the right is all about “BIG LIES”.
butchqueen
Fist him with Crisco and crushed glass.
Jack
I don’t hate Franklin Graham, because I don’t think about Franklin Graham. But it’s funny how these wing nuts cannot stop thinking about us. Glad Seattle told you to pound sand. It’s about time the “Christians” gets toppled for being about as anti Jesus as it gets. Go throw a party for the Minneapolis police. They seem to be more in-line with your values, a**hole.
Chrisk
He feeds his base what they like to hear.
butchqueen
If this c*nt is coming to Seattle, I’ve got to protest his *ss!!!
Manrico Jimenez
The real reason he’s doing this “benefit” for Seattle Police is so he can “stick it” to the BLM movement. In his twisted worldview, gay police officers are alright, as long as they continue harassing and suppresssing people or color.
tjay7
I hope there is a hell so Franklin Graham will burn in it.
revjimbrooking
A leopard cannot change its spots!! Graham is lower than whale dung and one doesn’t get any lower than that!!
James
EVIL PATHETIC LOSER WHO IS THE DOOR TO HELL, AND HIS STUPID MORONIC FOLLOWERS ARE ALL GOING TO HELL.
woodroad34
Ah! The sin of lying–bald-face lying. And then there’s the thievery of scamming. Hate in his heart and deeds…..soooo Christian.
Gay Thomas
What part of “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor” is this piece of shit not getting? What a massive LIAR. They’ve become immune to the repercussions of telling lies because of the evil Dotard. Billy Graham is rolling over in his grave.
Trekbike
Don’t be fooled, Billy Graham was just as anti-lgbtq as his son.
Den
Several people have mentioned that Graham is lying about his past in his comments regarding this event and his obvious and undeniable history of anti-lgbt policy. The fact is that evangelicals seem to think bearing false witness only relates to other christians of similar ilk.
He also probably thinks he “loves” LGBT people because he has some tiny concern about their “eternal souls” and thinks his pursuit of legislation to increase their marginalization and suffering in this life might “save” a few.
Evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity are undeniably poisonous to social progress and a sane future for humanity. Any repudiation of its adherents is a good thing in the long run.
YikesitzTay
God would surely damn someone to eternal punishment forever for getting surgery to fit their OWN desires and what their heart is saying. He would definitely judge someone for simply liking people who identify as a gender other than female or male, or liking people who identify as the same gender. Imagine thinking that a text from thousands of years ago could be edited or translated! And, ugh, worst of all–people actually think Ruth and Naomi loved each other and that ancient trans people were born as they were! The audacity! Kudos to him for being so full of hate and judgment and setting an example for youth like me.
JromeGervais09
How old are you? 10? I was raised in the church, went to a fundamentalist church, a holiness movement dogma. I’ve studied the Bible front to back and read many Biblical Scholars’ papers about the translations over the millennia, which show many, many discrepancies in translations and fabricated words to fit the translators biases. I’ve studied comparative religions and the teachings of Jesus. You’re obviously ignorant and uneducated. The word marriage as we know it today was not created until the 5th Century. It was the prerogative of Caesar, in the beginning of the Roman Church, to allow marriage in the first of the catholic churches. Then if was passed onto the early popes to approve marriages. The statement in Genesis made by Moses that “marriage” was between a man and a women was about increasing the population of the tribes for protection by numbers. Put it in context. And the word marriage was put into the text by King James I 3,000 years after the original writing of that text. You don’t know what you’re talking about. Get some education and come back to troll a gay site. You are a very hateful, afraid, child without any insight of life or death. I suggest that the administration of this paper deny you access to this comments page ever again. Take your hateful GOP propaganda out of the real world. Go back to your alternative universe where lies are accepted as truth.
YikesitzTay
@JromeGervais09 It was sarcasm.
mailliw110
Sometimes it’s hard to see the sarcasm without the eye roll!
Celtic
Franklin Graham is the spawn of Satan. He is the wolf in sheep’s cloth, the hypocrite and the heretic. May his destiny be in eternal hell for all the hell he has created for LGBTQ folk here on earth. Graham deserves no reprieve from eternal pain and punishment.
cuteguy
Revisionism is what the GQP/KKK does now.
momof3
I am amazed how mean spirited ppl are here. The police chief ORDERS ppl not to attend an invitation? Harkens back to the days when ppl were ordered not to attend gay clubs. Whatever Mr. Graham believes-his invitation was open to everyone-including those living together outside marriage-an equal sin in his faith, he didn’t ban anyone. The hypocrisy here astounds me. If he had said no lgbtq or those not married-y’all would have attacked him for that. How can there be any bridging the gap if everyone takes every little thing and gets offended? I just thought that a group that always talks about openness and love wouldn’t have responded so vile.
You’ll never change his opinion. But you can show that you support EVERYONE right to believe how they want, and the right to act on that belief. I remember when g/l couldn’t openly hold hands-and yet you want that same restrictions on someone who YOU don’t agree with. Only by respecting their rights, can you ever expect them to respect yours.
Vince
Oh noes. We wouldn’t want to be intolerant of intolerance. That would be mean and not respectful!
Graham has made his life into demonizing LGBT’s. Comparing gay rights with hate preachers right to hate speech is stupidity at it’s finest.
There is no “bridging the gap” through respect with these types,
Trekbike
You obviously don’t understand what his ulterior motives are by inviting everyone. Think about it for a while. It might come to you.
mailliw110
Don’t worry. People who don’t know history are still invited.
HMFan
That’s nice, Graham, but you’ll have to wait until next year’s LGBTQ+ Ally Open Enrollment period and submit your request then. Until then, keep thinking gay thoughts and good luck next year!
gregj777
Franklin Graham is posessed by Satan.