Bayard Rt was an dispensable force behd the Civil Rights Movement and openly gay.
Contents:
- JOHN LEWIS SAW GAY RIGHTS A MOVEMENT LIKE CIVIL RIGHTS
- AT A CROSSROADS ON GAY UNNS
- IS JOHN LEWIS GAY?
JOHN LEWIS SAW GAY RIGHTS A MOVEMENT LIKE CIVIL RIGHTS
The civil rights giant, who died this month, was a fierce and early fenr of lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer rights. * john lewis gay rights *
But Lewis was also a stnch and early fenr of LGBTQ rights, havg sponsored more than a dozen bills throughout his reer as a lawmaker to protect and advance the rights of LGBTQ those bills was the Equaly Act, which prohibs discrimatn based on sexualy or genr inty, and of which Lewis was a lead sponsor, as well as the Rpect for Marriage Act, which aimed to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and legalize same-sex 1996, Lewis livered an impassned speech agast DOMA on the floor of the Hoe, a rare showg of public support for marriage equaly at a time when about two-thirds of Amerins opposed lettg gay upl marry, acrdg to a Pew poll. "It ni gay men and women the right to liberty and the pursu of happs. ”A few weeks later, after a state Supreme Court lg, Massachetts beme the first state to regnize gay was an ally of the gay rights movement long before that, said Cathy Woolard, a former Atlanta Cy Council print.
She beme the first openly gay elected official Geia when she was elected the early and mid-1990s, Woolard lobbied for the LGBTQ advocy group the Human Rights Campaign. It was the era of the ary’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, when the gay muny had few alli Washgton, even among Democrats.
AT A CROSSROADS ON GAY UNNS
* john lewis gay rights *
”In his 1998 memoir “Walkg wh the Wd, ” Lewis said his nnectn wh the gay muny sprang om his experience of beg treated unequally a Black “simply bee you are different om the long-entrenched whe Anglo-Saxon Prottant standard that fed and ntrolled our society for s first two hundred years. ”ExploreLewis found himself a nfsor to those repentg of racismLewis’ endorsement of gay marriage me at a time when the public and most relig and elected officials were not supportive or were openly 1996, Print Bill Clton signed a bill fg marriage as a unn between one man and one woman, after sailed through both chambers of Congrs wh the support of Republins and most Democrats.
IS JOHN LEWIS GAY?
All Geia lawmakers but two, Lewis and Democrat Cynthia McKney, voted 2004, more than 76% of Geians voted to adopt a state nstutnal amendment that banned gay issue divid Lewis om some of his civil rights peers. Others said that the stggle for gay rights was not the same as the fight for racial equaly.
A month after Geians adopted the nstutnal amendment, the late Bishop Eddie Long, senr pastor of New Birth Missnary Baptist Church Lhonia, led thoands of Atlantans on a march through Sweet Auburn opposn to gay rights. ExplorePhotos: John Lewis through the yearsKg himself never openly spoke about gay rights the 1950s and 1960s, but Lewis ced his mentor’s stance on terracial marriage – “Rac don’t fall love and get married.