By: Teddy Partridge Saturday December 20, 2008 12:11 am

Shepard Fairey, the artist who created the iconic HOPE and CHANGE images — and now TIME magazine’s Person of the Year cover — considered withdrawing his newly created Inaugural poster but decided instead to donate "a chunk of" the proceeds to an organization dedicated to the overturn of Prop 8.

STOP…OBAMA TIME! STOP… INTOLERANCE!

Tomorrow my illustration for Time Magazine’s “Person of The Year” hits the newsstands. While I’m very honored to be validated by a periodical that is nothing short of an American institution, the moment is bittersweet because I’m very disappointed by Obama’s appointment of Rick Warren to deliver his invocation during Obama’s inaugural address.

Rick Warren is against gay marriage and reproductive rights, and he does not believe in evolution (maybe he offers himself as proof of lack of evolution). I understand that Obama is trying to appeal to conservatives and evangelicals, but this move is symbolically a slap in the face to many people. Warren is not a uniter, but a divider… he is intolerant in many of his views. I still think Obama is the best choice for president, but I can’t condone Warren’s involvement in Obama’s inauguration, no matter how insignificant it is.

While I’m on the subject of gay marriage, I will be donating a chunk of the proceeds from an inauguration poster of Obama I was asked to create to the movement to overturn Prop 8. At first I was considering pulling my inauguration poster, but I think re-directing funds from it to put into a cause I care about is actually more constructive. Plus, I wouldn’t want withdrawing the image to come across as a blanket boycott of Obama.

I’m sure I will ultimately disagree with Obama about many things, but I think I will agree with him on more. I think it is important to speak one’s mind, but also to not let the narcissism of petty differences sabotage our unity and progress.

-Shepard

Several people I know plan to donate to local GLBT organizations rather than spend money at Obama’s Inaugural events. Will you consider doing the same?

{h/t Todd Beeton}

7 Comments

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7 Responses to “Shepard Fairey: “I’m very disappointed by Obama’s appointment of Rick Warren…””

Teddy Partridge December 20th, 2008 at 12:15 am

Digg is open

Lisa Derrick December 20th, 2008 at 12:45 am

Fairey created this Love Unites http://campaignsilo.firedoglak…..ve-unites/ poster for the nationwide Nov 15 civil marriages/No on Prop 8 rallies.

I feel really dirty now having ordered Moveon.org’s inaugural tee shirt as gifts before Warren was announced. I am now going to have to figure out how to get a refund, since I feel really icky about it now, and instead will donate that money to Courage Campaign.

newtonusr December 20th, 2008 at 1:00 am

Dugg, Teddy.

Lisa – sorry about the shirts. I have a mess of Mark Warner t-shirts from yKos1 – one of his aides was stuffing them into the hands of anyone he could find – they make great car-washing rags. Cold comfort I know.

Phoenix Woman December 20th, 2008 at 9:21 am

In response to newtonusr @ 3

Two things:

1) There’s another preacher at the inaugural, Joseph Lowery – and he’s not only a civil rights icon, but gay-friendly to boot:

The Reverend went on to speak on respect for all people and how that played in to Civil and Human Rights as a whole. He said that if you are one who says, “I believe in human rights for all people, except for…” then you really don’t believe in human rights or equality. To believe in equality and human rights is to believe in it for all people. If you don’t, then you are, according to the Reverend, creating an oxymoron and certainly not standing up for equality. He said no matter what race, color, religion, creed, sex, gender OR sexual orientation… we are all deserving of human rights, civil rights and equality.

2) It may be surprising to people who spend most of their online time at liberal sites, but most Americans, when they think of Rick Warren, think of him as a moderate evangelical, which is why in poll after poll they strongly approve of his speaking at the inaugural.

In fact, he’s constantly being reamed out by conservatives for things like his environmental stances and his not wanting to destroy Syria, and his flock likes what they see as his outreach on AIDS and other issues:

Longtime Saddleback Church member Eric Bezko didn’t expect such outrage.

“The criticism has been there for years ever since we started the AIDS conference,” said the Newport Beach entrepreneur. “They’re saying, ‘How can Rick Warren be selected to do the prayer’ yet he puts this worldwide AIDS conference together. It’s contradictory on their part.”

Church member Jim Edwards is shocked by some of the comments that have labeled Warren as anti-gay.

“When there were pickets around Saddleback Church, I’m sure those people had no idea of the compassion Rick and his wife have,” said Edwards, of Lake Forest. “Rick Warren is what I know to be genuine with his understanding of the basic interpretation of the Bible. He’s a calm source of loving explanation of what Christianity is. I’m proud when Rick Warren is asked to be a spokesman.

Mauimom December 20th, 2008 at 11:01 am

Several people I know plan to donate to local GLBT organizations rather than spend money at Obama’s Inaugural events. Will you consider doing the same?

You betcha.

I’ve already posted at the Obama site that they can forget about ever getting another penny from me. i cringe to think how much I contributed in both the primary and general. From now on, it’s Blue America candidates only.

PS – glad that shithead Salazar is out of CO. I contributed to him way back in the day when we thought he’d be decent.