So much for an explosive summer trial discussing dirty men and their sperm: Megadaddy manwhore Bishop Eddie Long has settled the sexcapades lawsuits filed against him by four men.
The usually loquacious attorney for the men, BJ Bernstein, tells WSB that they reached a settlement with Long, though she refused to provide details.
"The matter has been resolved,” Bernstein says in a terse statement.
The settlement comes after court ordered mediation sessions that appeared close to resolving the matter at Easter, only to fall apart. Earlier this month, a state court judge in the case said he’s scheduling a trial for late summer.
The men--Jamal Parris, 23, Anthony Flagg, 21, Maurice Murray Robinson, 20, and Spencer LeGrande, 22--say Long (photo) started having sex with them when they were as young as 16. The intimate contact--which included kissing, massaging, masturbating and oral sex--sometimes took place at Long’s residence and in hotels during trips across the U.S. and the globe, according to the lawsuits.
Long, head of the 25,000-member New Birth Baptist Church in Lithonia, called the charges false and throughout the ordeal often cast himself as a victim under attack.
In 2007, the Southern Poverty Law Center called Long “one of the most virulently homophobic black leaders in the religiously based anti-gay movement.” Also in 2007, Soulforce—a national non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating anti-gay rhetoric in all religions—targeted Long and other anti-gay mega-church leaders for discussions about their rhetoric.
In 2006, then-NAACP Chair Julian Bond called Long “a raving homophobe” and refused to attend the funeral of Coretta Scott King being held at Long’s church. King supported marriage equality and HIV issues, and her longtime personal assistant was a gay Atlanta man.
In 2004, Long led a march against same-sex marriage through the streets of downtown Atlanta.
Megadaddy Eddie Long settles gay sex lawsuits
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