SUMMARY: Conservative minister Lou Sheldon is calling on agencies to deny giving assistance to surviving same-sex partners of victims in the Sept. 11 attacks.
As nonprofit and government groups mobilize for distributing relief funds in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, an influential conservative minister is calling on agencies to deny giving assistance to surviving same-sex partners of victims.
The Rev. Lou Sheldon, chairman and founder of the Traditional Values Coalition (news - web sites), said Thursday that agencies should distribute relief funds based on the traditional concept of family.
Relief organizations, he said, "should be first giving priority to those widows who were at home with their babies and those widowers who lost their wives." The assistance, he added, should be "given on the basis and priority of one man and one woman in a marital relationship."
According to the Washington Post, Sheldon said his comments were a response to reports that groups like the Empire State Pride Agenda were reminding gay men and lesbians who had lost partners in the terrorist attacks that they were eligible for aid.
He added that gay rights organizations "are taking advantage of this national tragedy to promote their agenda."
Matt Foreman, executive director of Empire State Pride Agenda, told the Gay.com/PlanetOut.com Network: "The Traditional Values Coalition has demonstrated a lack of any values, let alone traditional ones. Any group that purports to be Christian and says relief shouldn't go to people who need it is perverting religion in the same way as Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)."
Two days after the Sept. 11 attacks, two other influential conservative Christian leaders, Rev. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, suggested that God allowed the attacks because gays and lesbians -- as well as other liberals -- had too much influence.