Pastor kicks person in drag out of church saying ‘put on man clothes’
The pastor was filmed asking the drag queen to leave (Lhuillier/Facebook/Screengrab)
A pastor in Chicago has come under fire to telling a person in drag to leave the church during a service.
Antonio Rocquemore, of Power House International Ministries, can be seen telling the individual to “put on man clothes” in a video shared to Facebook.
“Can you leave my church and go put on man clothes? And don’t come here like that no more,” he says in the video.
“I hold a standard in here. Whatever you do on the outside is your business, but I will not let drag queens come in here.”
The audience can be heard saying “Amen” and “Jesus” and applauding the pastor.
Rocquemore says in the video: “I don’t do no bashing, because everybody is struggling with something.
“But what I’m not gonna do is allow you to disrespect the house of God – I can’t do it.”
The video was shared on social media by Christian James Lhuillier.
His post read: “Some of y’all are going to have to excuse my language but I am tired of this s**t.
“In a place that is supposed to be a place of change a place of deliverance whatever you want to call it why would you destroy someone in front of a room full of people.
“This is the kind of bulls**t that causes people to go home and commit suicide.
“S**t like this is the reason that the church has no power in 2018 because they are so worried about the wrong things.”
The pastor was unapologetic for his actions (Lhuillier/Facebook/Screengrab)
The video has been shared thousands of times, with many criticising the pastor’s actions.
Afterwards, Rocquemore shared another video to his personal Facebook page, in which he appeared unapologetic.
He said the person at the service had been a member of the church for several months.
The pastor said: “First of all, anybody that know me … I don’t bash nothing.
“The reason why I don’t bash nothing because when you start bashing things then you’re separating them. I don’t separate sin. Sin is sin.”
Texas drag queen on growing up
Earlier this year, a drag queen from Texas has opened up about how his parents went from telling him he would go to hell to becoming his biggest fans.
Timothy Byars, who performs as Sabel Scities, recalled how his religious parents were disapproving of his sexuality when he was a teenager.
“I was going to hell. Immediately they called my pastor over to talk some sense into me. They said they would never love my choice in a lover,” he told the LGBT+ platform I’m From Driftwood.
Later, though, his parents began to accept his sexuality and even saw Byars perform in drag.
“To go from, ‘I’m going to hell’ and that they’ll never love any of my lovers, to now: they’re the presidents of my fan club and my dad is pushing for me to be on Drag Race,” he said.
