The Southern Poverty Law Centre has called him, "one of the most virulently homophobic black leaders in the religiously based anti-gay movement." Now Bishop Eddie Long, pastor of Atlanta's New Birth Missionary Baptist megachurch is fighting three young men, former members of his congregation who claim Eddie coerced them into having sex with him. From The Guardian:
Long led a campaign for a national ban on same-sex marriage and his church counsels gay members in an attempt to "turn" them straight. In 2004, he led a march to Martin Luther King's grave in Atlanta in support of amending the US constitution to define marriage as "between one man and one woman" – and so permanently barring gay marriage under US law.
The lawyer for two of the men, BJ Bernstein, told the Associated Press: "We are taking calls and we do believe, based on what the boys' statements are, that there are other victims."
Although the relationships started when the plaintiffs were older than the legal age of consent of 16 in Georgia, she said Long abused his "spiritual authority" to coerce her clients into engaging in sexual acts.
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