Mississippi Faith Leaders Fight Discrimination

Last year, Mississippi passed H.B. 1523. The nation’s most sweeping religious exemption law cruelly targets the LGBTQ community and creates a license to discriminate against a wide array of people, including single parents and their children; unmarried couples; and religious minorities. A group of faith leaders, deeply disturbed by the blatant attempt to use the language of religious freedom to advance discrimination, sued to keep the law from going into effect. Hear in their own words why religious exemption laws such as H.B. 1523 betray true religious freedom and go against the core values of dignity and love at the heart of their religious traditions.

Claire Markham is the associate director for the Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative at the Center for American Progress. Sejal Singh is the former Campaigns and Communications Manager for the LGBT Research and Communications Project at the Center. Andrew Satter is the director of Video at the Center. Aki Suzuki is a former video editor at the Center.