Left to right: Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Utah Rep. Chris Stewart, Rev. Marian Edmonds-Allen, Parity, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, Utah Senate President Stuart Adams and Stephanie Summers, CEO, Center for Public Justice during a press conference to introduce the Fairness for All Act at the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City on Monday, Dec. 9, 2019
Remarks given December 9, 2019 at the Fairness for All Act Launch in Salt Lake City, Utah.
(link to press coverage)
My name is Rev. Marian Edmonds-Allen and I am the executive director of a faith and LGBT organization called Parity - and the mom of two transgender children. I support the Fairness for All Act and the courageous and very American ideal of mutual respect that it embodies.
I stand before you as someone who frightens almost everyone - I am an out and proud LGBT person, a gender nonbinary woman who is married, legally, to a woman. I am also an out and proud person of faith, a minister and pastor and someone whose belief is a guiding light for my life, and always has been.
When I get death threats these days it is not for my LGBT activism - the tipping point for some is that I CLAIM to be something they want to erase: an LGBT person who is also a person of faith. The idea of my being both, LGBT AND Christian, is too much for some.
And that is the state of our country, where the two “sides” in the LGBT and faith culture war now seek casualties.
Much of my life has been spent addressing LGBT youth suicide and homelessness. I know youth who have been kicked out of the family home on Christmas Eve, youth who have lost their lives because a parent or religious leader told them that being gay was a sin and that God hated them.
When we, as a society, fight over which side is right, LGBT or faith, it is those young LGBT people who bear the brunt of it. They hear that their lives - their very selves - are worthless. And they hear that faith and religion, that those who are faithful and religious - are the enemy.
I believe that faith is a fundamental human right that extends to all people, LGBT people included. I believe that LGBT people have a special insight into faith and spirituality, and that God is uniquely and beautifully reflected in the diversity of LGBT people.
Is this a perfect bill? Not yet. But its intention is. In the words of a young transgender person I spoke with yesterday, this bill is a hopeful step in the right direction. The Fairness for All Act shows that people on all sides can treat each other with compassion and respect.
It is my hope that as Americans we can lean in to this example and be part of it. That together, we may find the blessings of our differences, and in the words of Abraham Lincoln, truly have malice towards none and charity towards all. It is time.
Rev. Marian Edmonds-Allen is the director of Blessed by Difference and the executive director of Parity,
a NYC-based national nonprofit that works at the intersection of faith and LGBTQ+ concerns.