This week, it was revealed that the New Orleans archdiocese—the second-oldest in the country—has been concealing a serial child molester for decades. This comes in the wake of a report that more than 450 Catholic leaders in Illinois abused nearly 2,000 children.
Yet Christian extremists would have you believe that LGBTQ people are the “groomers.” That simply being LGBTQ in public is a threat to children. They say this even as church after church across multiple denominations are exposed for covering up and enabling decades of abuse.
Unfortunately, it appears that these same Christian extremists are making inroads. Following the Religious Right’s anti-LGBTQ “grooming” narrative, more and more Americans consider LGBTQ relationships “immoral,” finds a new Gallup poll. Today, practically all groups are less tolerant, but Republicans are the demographic where support has eroded the most. Their support for same-sex relationships has dropped 15 percentage points over the past year, with a majority of them now against LGBTQ couples.
The religious propaganda Christian nationalist news outlets and activists spew is working. We are losing progress at an alarming rate.
We are facing a concerted anti-LGBTQ movement that is religious to the core. Yet there is reason for hope. Christian nationalists don’t want you to know this, but most Americans oppose religion-based discrimination against LGBTQ people, as a new national poll finds.
This Pride Month, our network of atheist affiliate groups throughout the country are standing up for LGBTQ equality by participating in Pride events. We know we are on the right side of history, and we’re taking action. We cannot cede the narrative to Christian extremists, and we must show how religious exemptions from the law put the rights of LGBTQ people, and everyone, at risk.
That’s why we are working to protect the right to health care for all Americans, including LGBTQ people. Just last month, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed the Patients’ Right to Know Act into law. We are proud to have worked with Colorado State Representatives Brianna Titone and Kyle Brown to help develop its language. This important legislation will help to protect Coloradans by addressing denial of health care at the source. Whenever hospitals deny necessary care based on religious beliefs or other nonmedical reasons, they must now be transparent and disclose this information to patients.
Because of this success, lawmakers in multiple other states have reached out to us to help them introduce similar legislation that would protect LGBTQ people, and everyone else, from having religious dogma trump their medical needs.
This is great progress, but the Religious Right is fighting us tooth and nail—and are even working to pass laws that allow doctors, nurses, and other health care providers to deny treatment to anyone as long as they have a religious reason.
This is a fight we’re ready for and won’t back down from. Lives are quite literally on the line. But if there’s one thing I know, it’s that we can win if we stand together. Make a tax-deductible donation today to help make sure that Colorado is just the first of many victories in the fight to close religious loopholes that put us all at risk.
Sincerely,
Nick Fish
President
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