RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – The son of former televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker is taking on one of his late mother’s causes and fighting against religious and political discrimination against gays and lesbians.

Jay Bakker, 32, grew up near Charlotte, watching his parents run the Praise The Lord ministry that collapsed in scandal during the late 1980s.

His father went to jail and his mother remarried and became a television personality who embraced gay men with AIDS. Tammy Faye Messner died of cancer last year.

But her son, a preacher with as many piercings and tattoos as a punk rocker, has taken up the cause of helping gays and lesbians fight discrimination.

Jay Bakker, who is not gay, said his activism began after he saw friends mistreated because of their sexual orientation.

Bakker, whose church Revolution New York City meets in a bar, is scheduled to speak Sunday morning at Broughton High School Auditorium in Raleigh. He will speak Sunday evening at St. John’s Metropolitan Community Church, which serves gay and lesbian worshippers.

“I’m going to talk about loving your neighbor as yourself, God’s amazing grace and the dangers of apathy in our lives,” Bakker told The News & Observer of Raleigh for a story Saturday.

Bakker said he thinks the Bible passages condemning homosexuality refer to worship of a fertility god or to male prostitution. “I don’t think that two people in love is a sin,” he said.

The position has hurt him among some evangelicals and other conservative Christian groups that canceled his appearances at their churches.

Bakker said he learned early on not to compromise his principles for money, in part after his parents’ troubles when their ministry collapsed.

Jim Bakker was convicted on federal fraud charges and was discovered in a sexual affair with a church secretary.