As a Utah-born faith leader, I hope I can count on Sens. Mitt Romney and Mike Lee to help find common ground on ensuring fairness and equality for all Americans.
For decades, Congress has neglected its responsibility to protect the LGBTQ community — but with both parties now proposing to add nondiscrimination protections to the law, 2021 could change that. I look to Romney and Lee to join in the effort to hammer out the details of this crucial legislation.
Since 2010, I’ve served as pastor at First Baptist Church in Salt Lake City. First Baptist Church has a proud history of being an inclusive congregation, and the welcome and safety that LGBTQ folks have found here over the years was important to me in making the decision to take on my post.
In recent years, we’ve become more vocal about affirming the lives and dignity of LGBTQ people. Not only are they welcome here, but they’re valued here — and our faith community would be missing something rich and important without them.
Informed by my belief that the church and its leaders have a special obligation to heal the harm done to LGBTQ folks in the past, I’m deeply engaged in advocacy efforts in coordination with the community and its allies. For many young people, in particular — uncertain as to where to turn to reconcile their faith and their identity — hearing me take responsibility for the past failings of religious institutions has been a powerfully moving experience.
In meeting with young people — whether at First Baptist or at the city’s Pride Center or its annual Pride Week — I’ve learned the unique struggles that LGBTQ people of color and transgender and nonbinary folks face. One non-binary youth I met has to be home schooled because of what they had faced in public school.
My support for LGBTQ rights took on a whole new dimension in December 2013 when the federal district court ruled that same-sex couples have the right to marry in Utah. I donned a rainbow stole a congregant made for me and headed down to the courthouse to join other local faith leaders in officiating at marriages suddenly made legal. That day, I married 23 couples — some together for decades and one that was in a committed relationship for 42 years.
I’ve seen progress on LGBTQ equality during my ministry — and in Utah, the state has acted affirmatively to combat discrimination. But I’ve seen the resistance against fairness toward LGBTQ people mounted in many states and local communities. As a nation we have a long way to go. I’ve learned that one in three LGBTQ Americans, according to a 2020 survey, experienced discrimination — in public spaces, on the job, in schools, and in their own neighborhoods — in just the previous year.
That number rises to 60 percent among transgender people, who endure 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. Elders must often re-closet themselves, with nearly half of same-sex couples reporting discrimination in seeking senior housing.
Thankfully, there is now hope that Congress will 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 freedom fundamental to American life.
Finding a path to getting that job done is what legislators do when committed to solving problems, and Romney and Lee can look to the 21 states with laws prohibiting anti-LGBTQ discrimination without compromising religious freedoms.
Washington can follow suit, with senators reaching across the aisle to end the divisive pattern pitting religious liberties against the rights of LGBTQ Americans. Every major civil rights advance — from the 1964 Civil Rights Act to the Americans With Disabilities Act — has found the appropriate balance.
Sens. Romney and Lee: One hundred thousand LGBTQ Utahns, their families, and their friends are counting on you.
Rev. Curtis Price | First Baptist Church of Salt Lake City
Rev. Curtis Price, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Salt Lake City, is a Utah native. He served eight years in the U.S. Air Force, completed a B.S. degree in history and anthropology at Weber State University and a master of divinity degree at California’s American Baptist Seminary of the West.