Religious Left Lobbies for Gay, Transsexual Causes on Capitol Hill
Jeff Walton May 13, 2009
This is the third in a three-part series of articles about the Human Rights Campaign Clergy Call 2009. For coverage of Bishop Gene Robinson's opening talk "Building a Progressive Faith Movement for Justice," click here.
Activists ranging from a transsexual United Methodist minister to high-profile Evangelical pastor Tony Campolo descended upon Capitol Hill May 5th for an afternoon of lobbying in favor of a homosexual and transsexual legislative agenda. Organized by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), America’s largest gay rights group, the lobbying day was part of HRC’s second “Clergy Call” event.
Harry Knox, Director of the Religion and Faith Program at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, and a member of President Barack Obama’s newly convened council on Faith Based Initiatives and Neighborhood Partnerships, speaks at a Capitol Hill press conference on Tuesday with Religious Left, gay and transsexual clergy.
The day began with a lobbying training session at Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church led by Burns Strider, former Director of Faith Outreach to then-Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign for president.
In a kick-off press conference in upper Senate park, HRC President Joe Solmonese led over 100 religious left clergy in calling for passage of H.R. 1913, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, and the inclusion of “gender identity” (transsexuality) into the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).
United Methodist Minister Traci West of the Drew Theological School.
“I am honored today to stand with these men and women who have said no to intolerance and no to injustice,” said Solmonese. “These are indeed people who are praying with their feet and we at the Human Rights Campaign give thanks for their spirit and their advocacy.”
While many of the assembled clergy represented liberal and traditionally white religious groups such as the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ, speakers at the press conference were from varied backgrounds and denominations.
Rev. Dr. Traci West, a professor of African American Studies at United Methodist Drew Theological School, was one of several speakers who sought to link the homosexual and transsexual rights efforts to the civil rights movement of the 20th Century.
“I stand here in the tradition of Ida B. Welles,” said West, referring to the woman who called for anti-lynching federal laws to prosecute white mobs who singled out blacks. “Homophobic crimes like these must be recognized and investigated as the heinous hate crimes that they are.”
Rabbi Steven Jacobs of Temple Kol Tikvah in Los Angeles, CA.
Rabbi Steven Jacobs of Temple Kol Tikvah in Los Angeles, CA evoked the same civil rights narrative, quoting Martin Luther King, Jr. and referring to King’s 1963 civil rights march on Washington, D.C.
“Transphobia, the fear of gender variance in society, impacts all parts of life,” said Jacobs. “Gender rigidity impacts all of us, even if we are not transgender. That belief that there are only two ways to be human leads to violence and oppression.”
Jacobs specifically mentioned the proposed changes to ENDA, saying it would end discrimination of transsexuals.
“Equal protection is for all people in all places for gays, lesbians, straights, bisexuals and our transgender brothers and sisters,” said Jacobs, endorsing the bill that would afford special status based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Jacobs was preceded by fellow United Methodist Rev. Drew Phoenix, who underwent a sex change operation and transitioned from female to male in 2007, triggering a controversy in the 7.9 million-member denomination.
United Methodist Minister Drew Phoenix.
“What should have remained deeply intimate and personal became unnecessarily controversial and political,” said Phoenix. “Defamatory statements were made against me, charges filed to discredit me, and several attempts made to end my employment with the United Methodist Church.”
The Alaska-based minister stated that “tens of thousands” of transsexuals were subject to hate-motivated violence and job discrimination “each and every day.” Formerly a Baltimore pastor, Phoenix now directs an environmental group in Anchorage.
“As religious leaders and people of faith, we cannot sit by while our transgender sisters and brothers, made in the image of the Divine, continue to be oppressed,” said Phoenix.
Unitarian Universalist Minister Manish K. Mishra of Tampa, FL.
Rev. Manish K. Mishra of the Unitarian Universalist Church of St. Petersburg, FL shared an example from his home state of transsexuality in the workplace. Former Largo, FL City Manager Susan Stanton began a male-to-female transition in 2007, which was reported by the Saint Petersburg Times. Soon thereafter, Largo City Commissioners called for an emergency hearing, and subsequently voted to remove Stanton from her position running the city’s day-to-day operations.
“The city of Largo indeed faced a crisis of confidence, but not in Stanton, it was a crisis of confidence in the American dream,” said Mishra.
The predominantly gay Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) was also represented at the Clergy Call. Rev. Dr. Cindi Love, MCC Executive Director and author of “Would Jesus Discriminate?” shared a personal story about her partner, an elementary school counselor who retired after her superintendent asked her to remove an HRC sticker from the back of her car.
“Until that incident, we never felt afraid for her—even though the neighborhood where she worked was a high-crime area,” said Love. “Now the real risk of harm felt like it could come from her co-workers or supervisors or one of the fundamentalist church goers who represented a large population of the parents.”
Love was one of several speakers who insisted the enactment of hate crimes legislation was not about limiting free speech, but about “limiting real acts that terrorize, maim and kill real people in our communities.”
None of the speakers referenced crimes that had gone unpunished due to an absence of federal hate crimes legislation affording special protective status to homosexuals. However, a need for H.R. 1913 was stressed as urgent.
Metropolitan Community Church Executive Director Cindi Love.
Clergy Call organizers distributed comments by a handful of African American and evangelical pastors stating that hate crimes legislation would not infringe upon the ability of clergy to teach and preach their own view of scripture. Others in these groups have opposed the legislation based on concerns about possible scenarios such as a pastor being prosecuted for preaching a scriptural admonition against homosexual practice, if someone who hears or reads that teaching engages in violence.
Opponents of H.R. 1913 cite a congressional hearing from the last congress on the same piece of legislation, during which Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL) admitted that under the legislation pastors could be charged with hate crimes based on what they teach and preach. Similarly, opponents cite the precedent of a Canadian pastor who was recently prosecuted by that country’s Human Rights Commission for preaching deemed “intolerant.”Among the comments distributed were supportive evangelical statements by Christian ethicist David Gushee of Mercer College, Florida megachurch pastor Joel Hunter, and Sojourners’ Jim Wallis. The evangelicals were echoed in their support by Rev. Tony Campolo, president of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education and a speaker at the Clergy Call press conference.
Rev. Dr. Tony Campolo (in blue) surrounded by religious left clergy and transsexual activists.
“Justice is love translated into social policy,” Campolo told the assembled group. “This [legislation] is a chance to practice that love.”
The ordained Baptist pastor said that clergy could say what they wanted “as long as it does not promote violence.”
“We Evangelicals who have such a high view of scripture should want justice for gays, lesbians and transgendered persons,” Campolo said.