The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Church Administration Building is pictured in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2020. A Latter-day Saint leader announced support Tuesday for legislation in Georgia that would protect LGBTQ people from discrimination while also protecting religious rights.
Steve Griffin, Deseret News
A Latter-day Saint leader announced support Tuesday for legislation in Georgia that would protect LGBTQ people from discrimination while also protecting religious rights.
“LGBTQ rights and religious rights do not have to be in conflict,” 54 religious leaders and gay rights advocates said in a joint open letter to Georgians published Tuesday morning by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The first name listed was Elder M. Andrew Galt IV, an Area Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
The church’s senior leadership has supported similar “Fairness for All” legislation since 2015, when Utah passed a historic anti-discrimination and religious rights compromise with the church’s backing.
Tuesday’s letter comes two months after Latter-day Saint leaders announced support for an Arizona bill that also would provide religious freedom and LGBT anti-discrimination protections.
The Church of Jesus Christ also supports the federal Fairness for All Act proposed in Congress.
“We believe that the state of Georgia is uniquely positioned to come together to protect all people, unify our state and help bring healing to our nation on what for too long has been a divisive issue,” Tuesday’s letter said. “That may not be easy, and it will certainly require goodwill and mutual accommodation, but it can and must be done.”
The letter was signed by the executive director of Georgia Equality and other LGBTQ advocates as well as evangelical, Presbyterian, Methodist, Jewish and other religious leaders.
“We are extremely concerned that the ongoing conflicts between religious liberty and LGBTQ rights are poisoning our civil discourse, eroding the free exercise of religion and preventing diverse people of goodwill from living together in peace and mutual respect,” they wrote.
No bill has been proposed yet in the Georgia Legislature, but the writers asked Georgians to support public policy that “provides protections for LGBTQ persons as well as people and institutions of faith.”
The summary of the article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s opinion page described the letter as “a unique position to bridge divides and protect all from discrimination, even on a divisive issue.”
The letter specifically asked for support for legislation that would protect all people, from discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations, while also protecting important religious rights.
“No one should be denied these protections based on their sexual orientation or gender identity; and likewise religious persons and institutions should be protected in practicing their faith,” the writers said. “We believe that we are all children of a loving God who has commanded us to love each other. We are also Americans with a long tradition of figuring out how to get along despite deep differences.”
Georgia Latter-day Saint leader: LGBTQ, religious rights don’t have to conflict
Source: Gabriella Pinoys
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