Black, Puerto Rican lawmakers withdraw speaking invitation to Kim Burrell

The New York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators have yanked an invitation to have an anti-gay pastor and gospel singer speak at its annual convention in Albany, NY, this weekend, reports the New York Post. The Rev. Kim Burrell was listed on the group’s website as the featured speaker for a church service included in the program. Burrell, a pastor at Love and Liberty Fellow Church International in Houston, was videotaped in a sermon where she slammed what she called the “burning homosexual spirit, and the spirit of delusion and confusion” that has “deceived many men and women” and “caused a stain on the body of Christ.” She also said, “Anyone in this church who is dealing with homosexual sin … You play with it in 2017, you die from it.” In addition, Burrell said a man who has oral sex with another man is “perverted… You’re a woman and you shove your face in another woman’s breast, you are perverted.” Ellen DeGeneres canceled Burrell’s performance on her daytime talk show in January of 2017 after the video of Burrell’s sermon surfaced. She had been scheduled to sing “I See a Victory” from the “Hidden Figures” soundtrack with Pharrell Williams. Still, Burrell a year later was invited to participate in the event sponsored by the not-for-profit group run by minority legislators chaired this year by Assemblywoman Latrice Walker (D-Brooklyn). The group Thursday night issued a statement saying it canceled Burrell’s speaking engagement after The Post inquired about it. “On behalf of the Chair and the Board of Directors of the New York State Association of Black & Puerto Rican Legislators Inc., we would like to announce that Pastor Kim Burrell was originally scheduled to participate as speaker for our Legislative conference weekend. Once her previous statements came to our attention, we decided to go in a different direction and the engagement was canceled,” said the group’s executive director, Diana Campbell, in a statement.