McClurkin's appearance on behalf of the Obama campaign is now drawing fire from at least one gay rights group, and it was criticized sharply by writer Earl Ofari Hutchinson, who observed that "healing and consensus building does not mean sucking up to someone that publicly boasts that he's in 'a war' against gays, and that the aim of his war is to 'cure' them." It's also become something of an issue in the liberal blogosphere and more specifically on the gay blogs, too. The critics point out that Obama demanded the firing of a Justice Department official for racially-charged comments, and want him to condemn McClurkin, too.
We contacted the Obama campaign for comment on this early this afternoon, asking whether it would disavow his remarks. As of this evening, the Obama campaign had yet to comment. We'll bring you their statement if they do say something.
