Friday, December 5, 2014

Anti-Discrimination Law Stalls in Michigan House Committee due to a Pastor's Ignorant Rant

On Wednesday, Michigan House Commerce Committee hosted a hearing on a bill to extend anti-discrimination protections in the Michigan’s civil rights law. As folks testified on the pro and cons, religious leadership had the nerve to say that our rights are nothing to protect, or even to be considered.

The main FIC (Fool In Charge) was Pastor Stacy Swimp, who testified that it was a disgrace to compare LGBT rights to the civil rights movement. He said:
“This proposed legislation is yet another step in the assault on religious freedom. I asked the Commerce Committee today, can you truly define sexual orientation? Do you truly know what you are potentially aligning yourselves with? There’s a comparison between the homosexual allegation of gay rights and black civil rights. And as a minister of the Gospel, and as a black American whose parents participated in the Freedom Rides — my ancestors were slaves in plantations in the state of South Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee, Indiana and Mississippi — I stand here today rather offended. I ask, has anyone from the LGBT community ever had to stand up or step off of the sidewalk whenever a straight person walked by? Lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, and transgender Americans have never been denied their voting rights, nor have they been denied the right to assemble. No one from the LGBT community has ever had fire hoses turned on them by the police department, they have never had to drink out of an LGBT water fountain. There is no record of LGBT — homosexuals, lesbians being forced to sit at the back of the bus in an LGBT section.

Watch


This asshole is 1) using this ignorant notion that LGBT rights are not civil rights, and 2) pushing the idea that people of color are not LGBT. I think the idea that civil rights is a Black Members Only gig is pushing my buttons.

Stacy, you need to open your eyes see what really going on here. As LGBT people we are discriminated against, fired from jobs, and murdered. Yes, the civil rights movement and the LGBT movement have their differences, but we walk down the same road. Folks need to push pass this ignorant rant and do what's right.

Unfortunately, the bill was stalled, but this is far from over .

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Viktor is a small town southern boy living in Los Angeles. You can find him on Twitter, writing about pop culture, politics, and comics. He’s the creator of the graphic novel StrangeLore and currently getting back into screenwriting.