Last week we noted that the Thomas More Law Center had filed suit against Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 on behalf of right-wing activists and pastors in Michigan. One of those pastors was Levon Yuille, who tells OneNewsNow that he opposes hate crimes protections for gays because he finds it “demeaning [to] the black community”:

A black pastor who is challenging the constitutionality of the recently enacted federal “Hate Crimes Act” says he’s offended by comparisons to the civil rights struggles of African-Americans with those who engage in homosexual behavior … Yuille tells OneNewsNow that he also finds it insulting to equate the supposed “civil rights” struggle of homosexuals with the real civil rights struggle of African-Americans.

“I feel like individuals [are] demeaning the black community in trying to equate us to what someone chooses to do sexually,” Yiulle remarks. “The totality of black people is far greater than what one would prefer to do in expressing themselves in the manner I’ve already stated.”

The Michigan pastor says the spotlight should be on how the HIV virus is devastating his community — women in particular. “I’m most certainly disheartened to see that there’s so little focus being placed on this issue relative to so many black men participating in heterosexual and homosexual behavior — and ultimately and regrettably a lot of black women contract AIDS through this type of behavior,” he shares.

Pastor Yuille says he is taking a stand for truth, and believes he is doing what is right from a biblical, social, and health perspective.