Alan Cumming: Barack Obama Wrong To Ask Rick Warren

President-elect Barack Obama has chosen Orange County mega-pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his swearing, which has dismayed many Hollywood liberals. Actor Alan Cumming has taken to HuffPo to voice his opinion:

“In many ways Rick Warren is like a lot of people we know — friends’ dads or people we meet on planes that are pleasant but occasionally offer an opinion that gives you a startling glimpse into the darkness of their souls. Comparing same-sex relationships with incest and pedophilia is a case in point…

“I, like the majority of Americans, feel that gay people are unfairly discriminated against, and it is time they were afforded equal rights. I have heard the president-elect espouse these same opinions many times, and unlike some friends I have talked to over the last few days, I have no fears that he has altered these opinions in any way or that the invitation to Mr. Warren compromises them and his desire to see them enacted into law.

“Obama is very clearly showing his promise to be everyone’s president — from little, lefty queers like me to big, right-wing religious bigots like Rick Warren. (And he is a bigot. Go look it up in the dictionary.)

“And that, finally, is what is so upsetting and insulting about the idea that Rick Warren will be standing on the podium on this great day of celebration for a new America: because this whole thing is not about gay rights or policy or differences of opinion. It is about human decency and respect. Let’s face it, a generation ago Rick Warren would have made Barack Obama sit at the back of the bus, and now it’s the gays who are back there and we feel kind of lonely.”

Read Alan Cumming‘s full entry at HuffingtonPost.com.