ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Democrat Kristen McDonald Rivet, who’s flaunted her pro-LGBT stance through social-media posts of herself at pride parades, is joining a Monday get-out-the-vote rally hosted by a bishop who’s come under fire for his anti-gay remarks.
McDonald Rivet, a Michigan state senator vying for a congressional seat, is a “special guest” of Pentecostal Bishop Christopher E. Martin’s event targeting the black community, encouraging attendees to vote Democratic down the ballot
Martin was denied an appointment to Hurley Board of Hospital Managers in February after a sermon in which he unleashed an anti-gay tirade resurfaced.
“Some of the pastors you all are listening to are gay,” Martin said in the sermon. “They just fired one from a church around here the other day. I said they should have never hired him. He’s gay. They should have voted him out. He’s been gay. He was gay when they hired him. He was gay when you all fired him.”
“A man pastoring you ought to be married to a woman. There ought to be a first lady somewhere. If not, he might have a first gentleman,” he said in the same sermon. “We cannot have perversion over the people.”
Martin’s influence in the Flint, Mich., area has led prominent Democrats to flock to him for his political support — despite his anti-gay statements.
In Michigan’s hotly contested 8th Congressional District, McDonald Rivet seems to be willing to take the PR risk of appearing with Martin to drum up more support among black voters, as polls have shown her to be neck-and-neck with her Republican opponent Paul Junge.
She’s not the first prominent Democratic Michigander to appear alongside the controversial bishop. In 2022, the 8th District’s current Rep. Dan Kildee rallied alongside Martin a week before his re-election. Even Vice President Kamala Harris met with him during her visit to Flint this month.
In June, Democrat-appointed Michigan Supreme Court Justice Kyra Harris Bolden also joined the Bishop at a community event, despite having presented herself as an LGBT ally in a previous interview.
McDonald Rivet’s appearance alongside Martin is just as ironic since she’s touted her efforts to provide ”anti-discrimination protections for #LGBTQ+ individuals” on X.
McDonald Rivet’s public opposition to homophobia contrasts sharply with Martin’s previous remarks. In the resurfaced sermon, Martin declared pastors must “love” their parishioners out of homosexuality.
“How you gonna preach to them and you got it [homosexuality]?” said Martin. “We trying to get people out of what they’re in. We are trying to love them out of what they’re in. If you in it, you can’t love nobody out of it. You’re going to stay in it. And you’re going to let that spirit of perversion be all through the church.”
