Rev. Kathi Martin remembers sitting down with Bishop Eddie Long in 2008 in a conference room at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church to talk about his virulently anti-gay views in an attempt to educate him about LGBT people. Martin and the other Atlanta gay pastors who attended wanted him to meet face-to-face some of the people he has said “deserve death.”
“He actually seemed very engaged,” said Martin, associate minister of The Victory Church in Stone Mountain. “We first met with other leadership of the church and then he came in and listened to our stories of how his church and its anti-gay messages set a tone for the rest of the church, which then sets a tone for the people in the church and the families — that there’s a ripple effect. People are either having their prejudices confirmed or that prejudice is spread.”