{"id":125827,"date":"2019-01-14T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=125827"},"modified":"2019-01-21T11:16:33","modified_gmt":"2019-01-21T11:16:33","slug":"evangelical-christian-group-upset-that-lgbtq-people-are-mentioned-in-anti-lynching-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/01\/evangelical-christian-group-upset-that-lgbtq-people-are-mentioned-in-anti-lynching-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Evangelical Christian Group Upset That LGBTQ People Are Mentioned in Anti-Lynching Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Liberty Counsel\u2019s Mat Staver said he\u2019s worried that this means queer Americans could be granted more rights under federal law.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Mat Staver (far right), the founder of Liberty Counsel, at a demonstration outside the Supreme Court on Dec. 12, 2018. After backlash against his opposition to an anti-lynching bill, the group claimed that listing protected categories in the legislation would limit its application.
Zach Gibson via Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

10 Jan 2019 – <\/em>After more than a century of inaction<\/a> from Congress, the Senate unanimously approved legislation in December<\/a>\u00a0that would make lynching a federal hate crime.<\/p>\n

But some conservative evangelical Christian activists are upset that the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act<\/a> contains language that specifically protects<\/a> people on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.<\/p>\n

Mat Staver, the founder of the conservative litigation group Liberty Counsel, told the Christian news site OneNewsNow<\/a> that his team is talking to House politicians<\/a>\u00a0to ensure that the act is stripped of this inclusive language.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe old saying is once that camel gets the nose in the tent, you can\u2019t stop them from coming the rest of the way in,\u201d he said in an interview published Tuesday.<\/p>\n

While emphasizing that he\u2019s generally in favor of banning lynching, Staver claimed the bill is being used to further other proposed federal legislation that would explicitly protect queer Americans from discrimination at work and in other contexts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a way to slip it in under a so-called anti-lynching bill, and to then to sort of circle the wagon and then go for the juggler [sic] at some time in the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Liberty Counsel has spent years advocating against LGBTQ rights<\/a>, prioritizing the religious liberty of conservative Christians over the civil rights of queer Americans. The organization represented Kim Davis, the now-former Kentucky county clerk who was jailed in 2015 after refusing to issue marriage licenses<\/a>\u00a0to same-sex couples. Staver, who served as her lawyer, painted her as an evangelical Christian heroine, comparing her at one point<\/a> to Jewish people who were persecuted by the Nazis.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Staver (left) at a news conference discussing a trial on same-sex marriages in San Francisco in 2006. In a recent interview he said his team is talking to House politicians to ensure that the anti-lynching bill is stripped of language protecting LGBT people. ASSOCIATED PRESS<\/p><\/div>\n

On its surface, the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act isn\u2019t about queer rights. The bill addresses the crime of lynching \u2015 extrajudicial executions carried out by a mob. According to the NAACP<\/a>, lynching was used after the Civil War to resolve \u201csome of the anger that whites had in relation to the free blacks.\u201d At least 4,742 people, predominantly African-Americans, were reportedly lynched in America from 1882 to 1968.<\/p>\n

Since a new session of Congress has begun, the Senate-approved act and a corresponding bill in the House<\/a>\u00a0that\u2019s still in committee will likely have to be reintroduced<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As of now, the Senate bill\u00a0defines lynching<\/a>\u00a0as two or more people \u201cwillfully caus[ing] bodily injury\u201d because of the victim\u2019s actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, disability, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity.<\/p>\n

Staver told OneNewsNow that if passed, the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act would be the first federal law to mention gender identity and sexual orientation.<\/p>\n

Jenny Pizer, the law and policy director for the advocacy organization Lambda Legal, refuted that idea. She pointed to the\u00a0Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act<\/a>, which passed in 2009 and covered crimes motivated by a victim\u2019s actual or\u00a0perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. The Violence Against Women Act, which expired in December<\/a> amid the partial government shutdown<\/a>, also explicitly mentioned sexual orientation and gender identity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pizer said LGBTQ Americans still urgently need comprehensive and explicit federal anti-discrimination laws. According to the American Civil Liberties Union<\/a>, only a minority of states have laws that specifically protect queer people.<\/p>\n

Lambda Legal<\/a>, the ACLU<\/a>, and other progressive organizations have been pushing for the passage of the Equality Act, a bill that would prohibit discrimination against queer people in employment, housing, education and other areas of their lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause there continues to be confusion and debate about whether LGBTQ people already are legally equal \u2014 and whether or not we should be equal \u2014 we need the law to be inclusive and crystal clear,\u201d Pizer told HuffPost in an email.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Mike Huckabee (left), Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis and Staver, her lawyer, after her release from jail in 2015 for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in Kentucky. Liberty Counsel has for years advocated against LGBTQ rights. ASSOCIATED PRESS<\/p><\/div>\n

In response to backlash it received for Staver\u2019s position on the anti-lynching bill, Liberty Counsel released a statement<\/a> Thursday claiming that what he actually meant in the OneNewsNow interview was that including a list of protected categories in the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act would limit the law\u2019s application.<\/p>\n

\u201cLynching should be prohibited no matter the person\u2019s reason for committing this violent crime,\u201d\u00a0Staver said in the statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The organization also said it has received death threats over the issue.<\/p>\n

In a YouTube video<\/a> defending the organization, Jonathan Alexandre, Liberty Counsel\u2019s public policy director, said that some politicians and media organizations are using lynching\u2019s \u201chorrible history\u201d to \u201cpush unrelated political agendas.\u201d He confirmed that Liberty Counsel is questioning members of Congress about the \u201ccreated list of protected categories.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe historical victims of lynching should not, as I do not, tolerate the hijacking of this issue by political agenda,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Liberty Counsel has not responded to a request for comment on why it believes LGBTQ Americans should not be treated as a protected class.<\/p>\n

Pizer said she believes Liberty Counsel has repeatedly used an \u201cends-justify-the-means approach\u201d to furthering its goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the grossly disproportionate rates of hate crimes against LGBTQ people, and the horrifying rate of murders of transgender women of color in particular, a demand to strip [sexual orientation and gender identity] out of an anti-lynching bill is truly dumbfounding, and beyond comprehension,\u201d she said. \u201cThat it would be done by someone claiming to be motivated by Christian teachings just shows how deeply perverse and inhumane that anti-LGBT advocacy can become.\u201d<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Carol Kuruvilla is a religion reporter at <\/em>HuffPost. Carol was previously a reporter at the <\/em>New York Daily News covering a range of topics. She started the Religion beat at the <\/em>Daily News and continues to pursue her passion for religious issues at <\/em>HuffPost.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 huffingtonpost.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

10 Jan 2019 – After more than a century of inaction from Congress, the Senate unanimously approved legislation in December that would make lynching a federal hate crime. The Liberty Counsel\u2019s Mat Staver said he\u2019s worried that this means queer Americans could be granted more rights under federal law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":125831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[224,65,181],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-human-rights","category-anglo-america","category-sexualities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}