95 Miss. authors call for repeal of anti-LGBT law

John Grisham and Donna Tartt are among 95 Mississippi authors urging state officials to repeal a law that will let workers cite religious beliefs to deny services to lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people.

The writers said in a letter released Monday that House Bill 1523 is an example of Mississippi’s reactionary side, “which has nourished intolerance and degradation and brutality, which has looked at difference as a threat.”

They said the state also has a compassionate side.

“This core kindness, the embracing of wildness and weirdness, is what has nurtured the great literature that has come from our state,” says the letter. Signatures include those of former U.S. poet laureate Natasha Tretheway; National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward; Pulitzer Prize winner Tartt; Grisham and Greg Iles, who write thrillers; and Kathryn Stockett, author of “The Help.”

Republican Gov. Phil Bryant signed the bill last week amid objections from big businesses.

Mississippi is one of about 10 states considering such measures after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last summer that effectively legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

The bill is already having some fallout. Canadian rocker Bryan Adams is canceling a performance this week in Mississippi, citing the new law.

Adams said in a statement Sunday night that he was canceling a show Thursday at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi.