Kim Burrell has apologised for past “hurtful” comments made towards the LGBTQ+ community.
During her Aretha Franklin Icon Award acceptance speech at the Stellar Awards, the gospel musician said that “after a long time and a lot of reflection,” she has come to fully understand the reach and influence of my voice beyond gospel music.
“It’s something that you have to be very careful about when you realize that you’re no longer just preaching to the same choir. You’re preaching to people who wanted to be in the choir but were too scared to come because they don’t understand our language,” she said. “Musicians [have] “My God-given power to unite and heal, and to understand that some of my past words, comments and sermons have been received as negative and hurtful by the LGBTQ+ community. Nothing hurts more than knowing that I have hurt someone by saying something in God’s name.”
“And for that, I want to apologize to the LGBTQ community. Let’s give them a big round of applause,” Burrell continued, directing the crowd to applaud. “We want them to have strength and we want them to know in their hearts that we all have to embrace all that we should embrace as God’s people and strive to show God’s love to all. Amen. Tonight, I pray that this award and this moment will be the beginning of building bridges and listening to one another as we walk in peace with all people and develop the Godly character that requires us to see God.”
Burrell has a long history of homophobic remarks. In a 2017 sermon, she called gay people “perverts” and claimed that LGBTQ+ people are being deceived by a “homosexual mentality.” She later warned an audience at Houston’s Love and Liberty Fellowship Church that people who “play with” queer identity will “die for it.”
“A spirit of delusion and confusion has deceived many men and women and has stained the body of Christ,” Burrell said at the time. “To anyone who has a homosexual spirit, I love you and God loves you, but God hates the sin that is in you and in me, and He hates anything that is contrary to the nature of God.”
Darian Aaron, GLAAD’s Southern news director, said in a statement that Burrell’s recent apology is “just the first step toward taking full accountability and healing from a record of harmful and inaccurate statements,” and that “her attendance at the Stellar Awards ceremony shows there is still work to be done.”
“Black LGBTQ people who remain in traditional faith communities are all too familiar with the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric that Burrell and others have espoused throughout their careers,” Aaron said. “We are familiar with the ‘jargon’ of Black church culture and the gospel music industry that profits from our talents but demands that we remain silent about the truth that aligns with God’s presence in our lives.”
