Interview #2 with Bishop Kittim Silva of the International Council of Pentecostal Churches of Jesus Christ.
Brooke: We’re doing a school project, would you mind answering some questions?
Kittim Silva: Sure, my name is Kittim Silva [something else we can’t hear]
Brooke: We’re looking at both sides of the [same-sex marriage] issue, so can you tell me what the issue is here?
Kittim: We are here to protest against marriage between man & man and woman & woman. We are not against the gay community, we are not against their civil rights, but we are against marriage between man & man and woman & woman based on the Bible and the tradition and the history.
Brooke: And the people who are in the protest, where are most of these people coming from?
Kittim: They are coming from different places, from different counties, and some of them from New Jersey, but the majority from New York, and also from New York City, and the majority of us are democrats.
Riese: I noticed there’s a lot of signs that say things like ‘Soddom and Gommorah’, these very negative things —
Kittim: No, you don’t see those signs here, we are not a protest against gays. We are protesting against our governor, David Patterson, what he’s endorsing and promoting, and he’s endorsing the marriage between man & man and woman & woman. And we respect the rights of gay people but we are against that marriage. We are here to say that we don’t have to redefine marriage, because it’s already been defined in the history and in the Judeo-Christian traditions.
Brooke: So then what do you think of those signs over there?
Kittim: Those signs say G-d created man + woman, that’s equal to marriage, man and woman, Adam and Eve.
Brooke: But there’s also a Sodom & Gammorah one —
Kittim: Probably that’s further down —
Brooke: There’s a lot of them —
Kittim: There’s not a lot.
Brooke: No, there are. I just wanna know because that’s like — I mean, that’s a reflection on you all.
Kittim: Our people that we come with– we don’t come here to attack [the gay community].
Brooke: That’s what they’re doing though.
Kittim: No, not really. You need to see again and come back to me with a report.
Brooke: Can I show you? Can we walk over there?
Kittim: Where? Way over there?
Brooke: You have like five blocks of people!
Kittim: Noooo —
Brooke: There’s like a whole row down there!
Kittim: Don’t put those people in your news, don’t put it in the news.
Brooke: That’s the negative, that’s what we feel from them —
Kittim: We don’t share that opinion with them, they are wrong.
Brooke: But they’re here on your behalf!
Kittim: No, those people are wrong, I would like to remove them.
Riese: You should then, you should remove them.
Kittim: We are here to talk about marriage between man & man and woman & woman.
Brooke: That’s what we thought too, but then we saw all this stuff over there about how they hate gay people.
Kittim: You don’t pay attention to that, just pay attention to these people over here.
Brooke: Just pay attention to the people who are in charge?
Kittim: Over here you will not see that, look at that– (reads sign) “A Day to Proclaim a Voice in Favor of Matrimony Between Men & Women.” That’s our message today, we are not against the gay community, we have respect for them.
Brooke: Then what are you going to do to break off the people who are saying those things, because that’s where the poor reflection on you all is happening…?
Riese: Why don’t you have signs that say you are for civil unions?
Kittim: You can go to them and say, ‘Sir, I have spoken to someone who says that your sign is wrong’, go over there, I give you that authority to go over to them.
Brooke: Do you have a card or something that we can show them?
Kittim: No, but you want to take down my name?
Brooke: Yeah, I’d like to in case we have some follow-up questions.
Kittim: This is not a protest against that, it’s against redefining marriage…
Big Man: What college are you working for?
Brooke: Um, Duke University. But I’m up here for the summer.
Big Man: What’s your major?
Brooke: I’m a sociology major. This is my summer project.
Big Man: I need to have the two names of them.
Brooke: Yeah, of course. [Writes down our names]
Big Man: — For protection.
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must. read. this. before. bed. ! Maybe rachel will be keeping tabs aon her boy dan and happen upon this, and then hang out with you guys and make you drinks. maybe.
oh, i’m so proud to be a part of this team.
I second that.
Well at least part of the intern team? Or are we all considered part of the whole? haha
well technically the interns are part of our military intern army, which has a very strict do ask do tell policy. but the army is part of the overall team, because the team is autostraddle, which is like the country equivalent of this analogy, which is brilliant, so brilliant that i must stop right now!
wait, are we disciplining interns over homosexual conduct? that’d be amazing.
Please edit out Lt. Choi interview from the rest of video. It is very important content! Excellent interview should be featured!
This website has easily become one of my favorites. Whether its the glbt related news stories, interviews, or just pictures of hot girls. you all do a wonderful job :)
I am really really glad you decided to go, yet sad I couldn’t but this is fan-freakin-tastic. This type of stuff is the reason I believe even bigger stuff is going to happen for you guys in the very near future.
ps- My day feels at a loss if I don’t get to check this website daily – as I learned last week on my moving day. (and that was the hot 100 day!)This is probably not healthy
wow – that video made me soo happy. Thank you for this amazing article!
this is awesome, well done to you guys for going! dan choi and his boyfriend are ace, DADT is so bloody ridiculous it makes my head hurt!
The video was awesome! This was great – thanks for getting out there and doing the roving reporting.
Dan choi is amazing and cute as hell!
His boyfriend kind of looks like Mike Stipe but with hair!
Love the article and the video and Haviland is back, yay!
I was totally distracted by the Reverend’s teeth! He seems decent enough though!
Autostraddle <3
dan choi is absolutely delightful :)
everyday i love more what autostraddle is evolving into.. you should be very proud of yourselves!
The second preacher-man you talked to had some pretty scary lookin’ dudes around him. You girls are fearless!
I’m sure you can’t say, but I’d love to know what fake names you used.
Re: fake names… your guess is as good as mine! don’t recall, some play or other off of our actual first and last names.
I’d just assumed you ladies had readymade aliases you use all the time a la Regina Phalange.
This is so funny! “If there is a storm gathering, we would like to be there with the white knights/horsemen and so forth, I hear the apocalypse is a totally crazy laser-light show!!” LOL Great video, wonderful article! I heart Autostraddle!
So. So. So. So. So. PROUD!!!
The end of that video may have possibly made me mist up a little in my ocular region…and by “possibly” I mean “totally”.
Eeek great video. :)
Thanks for covering it.
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“I may have thought a few times of Tasha & Alice, because I have chapstick for brains.”
by far the gayest thing I’ve heard/read you say/type. i mean really Riese, chapstick? homo!
Awesome video. His goons look scary but considering how you gals easily outwitted them, I wouldn’t lose sleep over it. I see a future career in investigative reporting.
Congratulations on the video, it was fantastic. Taking it to the streets! I want to see more of this ( and not just b/c I miss NYC something Fierce)
GREAT video… i’m so happy you guys went out there. their counter-arguments were crap. “we respect the rights of gay people” but no marriage for them!!! how can they expect to win in the end when they can’t come up with one solid way that gay marriage affects them? can’t wait for them to “lose” more states!
and the second dude who just kept waving off your accusation that there were hate signs all over the place! closing your eyes and waving your arms won’t make them go away, dude!
so I wanted to see if this would come out bold