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Gospel singer Kim Burrell loses radio and TV shows after homophobic tirade

Gospel singer Kim Burrell loses radio and TV shows after homophobic tirade
FILE - In this Sunday, April 20, 2008 file photo, Kim Burrell performs prior to a Mass by Pope Benedict XVI at Yankee Stadium in New York. Ahead of a performance on the talk show "Ellen" in early January 2017, gospel singer Burrell says she make "no excuses or apologies" for a sermon at a Houston church where she referred to gays and lesbians as perverted. Photo: (AP Photo/Mike Segar, Pool)

Texas Southern University is ending Kim Burrell’s radio show “Bridging the Gap” after publicity gained by her anti-gay comments, KTRK reports.

The weekly show debuted in June 2016 and promised listeners Burrell’s “unique take on music, life and society” in a station press release. The show aired Sunday afternoons on the university’s radio station KTSU.

The Houston Chronicle also reports that Burrell’s television talk show “Keep It Moving with Kim Burrell” on CW is no longer listed on the station’s log. The show was started in September.

The controversy started when video of Burrell giving a virulently homophobic sermon surfaced last week. “I came to tell you about sin. That sin nature, that perverted homosexual spirit, and the spirit of delusion and confusion, it has deceived many men and women. You as a man, you open your mouth and take a man’s penis in your face, you are perverted. You are a woman and will shake your face in another woman’s breast, you are perverted.”

After the video surfaced, Burrell said on Facebook that she does not hate LGBT people. “I came on because I care about God’s creation. And every person from the LGBT and any other kind of thing that is supporting gay, I never said LGBT last night, I said S-I-N.”

Several other artists who appeared on the Hidden Figures soundtrack with Burrell have spoken out against Burrell, including Pharrell who wrote, “I condemn hate speech of any kind.”

The singer was scheduled to perform a duet with Pharrell on “The Ellen Show” today, but was dropped as a guest after the video of Burrell’s homophobic comments surfaced.

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