Katy Perry delivered a powerful speech at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual gala in Los Angeles last month, where she opened up about her sexuality and recalled her early years in a conservative Christian environment in which “homosexuality was synonymous with the word abomination.”
Picking up HRC’s National Equality Award, the singer nodded to the real-life experience that inspired one of her biggest hits, noting, “I kissed a girl and I liked it. Truth be told, I did more than that.” At first, she attempted to “pray the gay away at my Jesus camps,” but eventually discovered that the LGBTQ community was made up of “the most free, strong, kind and inclusive people I have ever met.”
Perry’s candid remarks have drawn national praise, but one former Colorado legislator believes the singer’s speech is evidence that she is “ruled by Satan.”
Gordon Klingenschmitt, who was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives in 2014 but failed in his state Senate bid last year, blasted Perry on the April 9 installment of his “Pray In Jesus Name” television program, Right Wing Watch reported.
“You don’t just need more of your Jesus camps, more of the Bible, more of what your parents told you,” Klingenschmitt said on his program, a clip of which can be viewed above. “You need to get the devil out of you.” He then offered a prayer for Perry, noting, “We pray that she will be saved, that she will be born again, that she will repent of her sin and stop promoting sin to young people.”
As far as anti-LGBTQ statements are concerned, however, Klingenschmitt is a repeat offender. In December, he cited an inclusive Zales Jewelers holiday commercial as evidence of a “demonic spirit” who had inhabited the advertising executives who had created the ad.
He also blasted the Boy Scouts of America for “thumbing their nose at God” in 2015 for promoting “homosexual men to mentoring and camping with your boys” after the scouting organization lifted a controversial ban on openly gay adult participants.
Was Perry’s speech really worthy of this brouhaha? Watch an excerpt below and decide for yourself.
CORRECTION: The original version of this article incorrectly identified “Pray In Jesus Name” as a radio program.
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