Black leaders must stand for LGBTQ rights

For far too long, LGTBQ people have been subject to rampant discrimination. Now, change is within our grasp. Congress is considering the Equality Act, landmark legislation that would amend the Civil Rights Act to include LGBTQ people, thereby prohibiting discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodations and more.

Passed by the House, the bill faces an uphill battle in the U.S. Senate, in large part because of fears that the legislation would infringe on the freedoms of religious groups.

It’s crucial for Black faith leaders to stand with our

LGBTQ family. As Black religious leaders and activists ourselves, we know firsthand the power of the faith community to create change. We also know that we who carry in our DNA the legacy of liberation from oppression must help advance the freedom and equality for our LGBTQ siblings.

Every day, we must take steps toward the promise of liberation. The Equality Act is a necessary step on this most tedious journey we walk on toward freedom and justice for all.

Our LGBTQ siblings have God’s imprint on their spirits; they are made in the image of God. Why would we deny them the full rights and privileges of human dignity?

As people who have seen the liberating power of God, we cannot withhold that same liberating power from the LGBTQ community by opposing legislation that would provide them with full and equal protection under the law.

Ours is the legacy of that long journey toward liberation, and we have a duty to hold hands with our LGBTQ siblings in their struggle for equality, as we hold hands with God pressing forward toward the promise of freedom.

Bringing LGBTQ people under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is absolutely necessary. LGBTQ civil rights leaders have fought and died to ensure that the

Black community would achieve

these landmark protections.

Are we to say to them, our forebears, that the rights they sought out on behalf of our whole community should not be available to them because of who they love and who they are?

The Equality Act is a foretaste of that promised land we journey toward, a promise rooted in

liberation. Let us press onward toward that promised land of liberation with our LGBTQ siblings.

Paula Munoz / Associated Press The legacy of the Civil Rights Act’s protections must be upheld for the LGBTQ community by Black religious leaders, who have always been a key pillar in the movement for change.