Alaska can lead on fairness and equality

As an Alaska-born faith leader, I encourage our U.S. senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, to help our nation find common ground on ensuring fairness and equality for all Americans. For decades, Congress has kicked the can down the road on protecting the LGBTQ community from discrimination — but with both parties now offering proposals to get that job done, 2021 could finally be the year. I am looking to Sens. Murkowski and Sullivan to help hammer out the details of this crucial legislation.

For the past six years, I’ve been proud to serve as pastor of Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Anchorage, a More Light congregation that welcomes LGBTQ individuals and their families into the full life of our faith community. Immanuel Presbyterian’s mission statement, guided over several decades by our More Light philosophy, states, “We believe that all people are children of God and affirm the worth and dignity of all races, ethnicities, ages, abilities, genders, and sexual orientations ... We make a commitment to lovingly accept our diversity, as did Christ, with respect, compassion, understanding, and love.”

I began my journey in understanding the LGBTQ community as a 16-year-old youth delegate to the Presbyterian General Assembly, at a time when the church was debating the ordination of LGBTQ individuals. The floor debate caused me to seriously think about LGBTQ lives for the first time. Mindful that everyone is created in the image of God and our faith teaches us to love one another, I realized our community had a responsibility to embrace our LGBTQ members.

It is my faith — first and foremost — that informs my support for LGBTQ rights. Religious freedom is something I value very much in our country, but I see nothing in protecting the LGBTQ community from discrimination that would infringe on my mission as a pastor or on our congregation’s right to worship as it chooses.

LGBTQ people of faith have been a vital part of our congregation since well before I arrived at Immanuel Presbyterian. LGBTQ clergy involved in ministries outside of congregations have joined in our worship services — and our activities also draw LGBTQ people who are not members but have never before found a welcoming faith community. They know they will find a safe place among us.

In my work with LGBTQ community members I’ve witnessed the challenges and obstacles they’ve faced not only in finding a spiritual home but also in their everyday lives. I’ve also learned that discrimination has profoundly damaging consequences for LGBTQ Americans nationwide. One in three, according to a 2020 survey, experienced discrimination — in public spaces, on the job, in schools, and in their own neighborhoods — in the previous year.

That number rises to 60% among transgender people, who experience exceptionally high levels of unemployment, poverty and homelessness. They are also stalked by violence, with a record 44 hate-motivated murders nationwide last year.

Black and Latino LGBTQ folks face greater poverty rates than communities of color generally. Less than half the states protect the community’s youth from bullying in school and even fewer offer nondiscrimination protections. Elders often find themselves having to re-closet themselves, with nearly half of same-sex couples reporting discrimination in seeking senior housing.

LGBTQ Alaskans still enjoy no statewide nondiscrimination protections, and there is no law protecting youths from school bullying or harassment either.

Thankfully, there is now hope that Congress might finally act. For the first time, both Democrats and Republicans have put forward measures that add LGBTQ protections to our nation’s civil rights laws. The major disagreement between the two parties involves balancing the urgent need to protect LGBTQ people with the religious freedoms we all cherish as Americans.

Finding a path to getting that job done is what legislators do when committed to solving problems, and Sens. Murkowski and Sullivan can look to the 21 states that have adopted laws prohibiting anti-LGBTQ discrimination without compromising religious freedoms.

Our nation’s capital can do the same, with senators reaching across the aisle to end the divisive pattern that pits religious liberties against the rights of LGBTQ American. Every major civil rights advance — from the 1964 Civil Rights Act to the Americans With Disabilities Act — has found the appropriate balance.

Sens. Murkowski and Sullivan: Thousands of LGBTQ Alaskans, their families and their friends are counting on you.

Rev. Ellen Price-Johnston is pastor at the Immanuel Presbyterian Church, Anchorage.

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