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Pat Robertson visits Mel White in ja il and drops
the charges against him
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Kip M. Hard, DC
Valerie M. Lyon, MS, LMT
Suzanne Scopes, ND
Elizabeth Carlson, DC, LMT
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the rock, hallelujah. I’m off the
■ rock to stay.” A joyous Mel White was
released from the Virginia Beach City
Jail late on the evening of March 8.
JL .
Pat Robertson, patriarch of the reli
gious right—founder of the Christian Broadcast
ing Network, the 700 Club, and the Christian
Coalition—met with White.
White had begun a fast on Valentine’s Day
when he tried to meet with his former boss to
discuss how Robertson’s extreme rhetoric and
untruths can lead to hate crimes against gay men
and lesbians— and even
death. Robertson refused a
meeting, and White was
ejected from the building at
close of business.
White returned the fol
lowing day and was arrested
for trespassing. He refused
to post $2,500 bond. In the
end, his fast would last for 23
days.
It was about 8:15 pm.
“Five deputies were outside
my isolation cell, my door
was unlocked, and I went
sprinting through the corri
dor,” recounted White in an
interview the morning after
his release. The deputies took
him to a cell where attorneys
meet with clients.
“Next thing I knew, Pat
walked in. And I just felt like
screaming with delight.” His
spokesm an Gene Kapp
“plopped” a tape recorder
down on the table. “Pat,
would you like to lead us in
prayer or would you like me
to?” asked White.
Though he described the
conversation as “cordial,” the
visitors never removed their
overcoats in the dozen min
utes it lasted. White asked
Robertson, first, if he would
“acknowledge publicly the
rise of hate crimes against
gay and lesbian people, and
condemn anyone who com
mits or incites those crimes,”
and, second, to meet with a
group from P-FLAG “to talk
about the human side of this
suffering."
Mel WUte
Robertson responded that
he had a busy schedule but would see what could
be done. He repeated his view that homosexuality
is a sin, handing White a letter outlining that
position. He said he was making the visit at the
request of White’s parents, long-time Robertson
supporters who in their will are leaving $100,000
to one of his organizations. And then he left.
Sheriff Frank Drew soon appeared and said all
charges had been dropped by Robertson.
White was both generous and gloating in his
victory.
“It took a big man to take that step,” he offered,
i t is the first time he has ever agreed to meet with
gays or lesbians, let alone gay and lesbian Chris
tian activists.
“Just to meet with Pat has to make a certain
kind of compromise that says we exist. It is very
B
B
much like recognizing a country he has never
recognized before.”
Yet, at the same time, he recounted “tactical
blunders” Robertson had made throughout the
whole process. “Pat didn’t want them dragging me
out of there [jail] on a stretcher. That would have
been a terrible mistake on his part.”
But White concluded, “Whether he came out
of compassion for me or out of being wise and
political, it doesn’t matter folks— he came.”
The stay in jail and the fast have taken their toll
on White. “I felt so ugly when I looked in the
PHOTO BY KEN LYONS
i- T
CIRCLE HEALTHCARE CLINIC
mirror,” he said. His gaunt face was now framed
by a beard, the result of choosing not to use the
lone razor inmates of the jail must share.
This normally thin man had shed 15 pounds,
leaving prominent bones and little padding.
White is still on "the adrenaline rush” of
Robertson’s having “made a pilgrimage to see a
gay man in prison.” But he admitted to “a kind of
hollow sense that the energy is not up to what it
used to be.”
He plans to stay several days in Virginia Beach,
“celebrating” with the community that supported
and sustained him, then he longs to go home to be
with Gary and the dogs. But he is ready to return
should there be a need, “If we don’t face oppres
sion every time it raises its head, oppression will
win.”