A North Carolina church pastor’s call for gays and lesbians to be fenced in so they can eventually die off has triggered outrage among gay-rights and anti-hate groups, with one local citizens organization planning a protest in response.
The Catawba Valley Citizens Against Hate said it was organizing a peaceful protest against Pastor Charles Worley on Sunday in front of Providence Road Baptist Church just outside Maiden, N.C., “to tell the world that hate is not welcome in our community.”
The group said the protest would be “in the ideals of Dr. Martin Luther King and Gandhi.”
“We will not scream, shout or taunt Pastor Worley or his church’s members,” it said on its Facebook page.
The protest organizer, Laura Tipton, who lives in nearby Hickory, N.C., said she’s gotten a tremendous outpouring of support and now expects “400 or more” people to attend.
“I think the message needs to get out, especially because this is a North Carolina church and North Carolina has gotten a very bad rap,” Tipton told msnbc.com. “I think it’s important that people know that not all of us feel this way, that there is support for the LGBT community in this state.”
Worley’s Mother’s Day sermon suggesting that “lesbians and queers” should be rounded up to die off touched off a firestorm after a video of it was posted on YouTube this week by the Catawba Valley citizens group.
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