FAMILY POLICY ALLIANCE 11/02/2019 REP PELOSI DELIVERS A FLAWED HISTORY LESSON ON CIVIL RIGHTS

Submitted by: E Larson

Nancy Pelosi’s History Lesson on Civil Rights     I wish you could’ve been with me to see Nancy Pelosi’s face this week. I know – you probably see enough of her on cable news! But, trust me, this was very different. You see, I spent the week interacting with members of Congress and their staff, but it was far from the normal set of meetings on the Hill. I was with a group of people called the CHANGED Movement. It’s a grassroots organization of “rainbow crossers” – formerly LGBT-identifying individuals who have found their identity in Christ and no longer struggle with same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria. We went to D.C. to let lawmakers know that the so-called Equality Act (H.R. 5) – along with a related bill called “Fairness for All” – demean and disregard the “Changed.” That’s because it outlaws their stories – in therapy, schools, and public spaces – as hate speech. We also explained that these bills demean and disregard people of faith by prohibiting them from exercising their beliefs in their businesses, churches and even families. Lastly – and this is why I was along – these bills demean and disregard Blacks. I joined CHANGED in D.C. to explain to our leaders exactly why these bills demean and disregard my people. This was my message – whether they wanted to hear it or not. The Equality Act (and the so-called “Fairness for All”) isn’t stand-alone legislation. It is a proposal to add the words “sexual orientation and gender identity” as a protected class (right alongside “race”) to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. But my skin color is not fluid. It’s not a result of personal expression. It’s not an attraction or feeling. It’s an immutable characteristic – unchangeable and inherent. My skin color is the very reason the British and then American governments engaged in centuries-long, systemic oppression against the people of Africa. This is our history: Our people were KIDNAPPED from their country and FORCED into a lifetime of SLAVERY in America. They were TRADED for goods and SOLD. Slave families were not recognized by the government, so their marriages were PROHIBITED – their children STOLEN. It took a CIVIL WAR and the BLOOD of hundreds of thousands of Americans to free them from their chains. Even then, after the Northerners won the war and all slaves were declared free, too many state governments continued to ensure the subjugation of Blacks by passing deeply racist “Jim Crow Laws” and overlooking lawless lynchings. Out of this pain and degradation, the Black Civil Rights movement was born, and our people united across the nation to claim our God-given right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And that is why we have the 1964 Civil Rights Act – an extraordinary remedy for extraordinary atrocities. After giving this summary, I then asked representative after representative, senator after senator, this question: Why then should the LGBT-identifying individual – whose children have never been sold, whose bodies have never been dehumanized to that of property – hijack the astounding victory of the Civil Rights Act to protect them from harms they have never suffered, to remedy evils they have never experienced? None were able to provide an answer. Not one. The 1964 Civil Rights Act was not enacted against the backdrop of national protests and hate-driven assassinations so that activists could force every baker in America to create cakes for same-sex weddings. It was not enacted to force private citizens, churches and faith-based businesses to bend to the will of the government. I hope my words prompted both Republicans and Democrats who voted for the Equality Act to take a long, hard look at this misguided effort to hijack the history of Black Americans. As for Nancy Pelosi – unlike many others, I didn’t get to give her my full presentation. She figured out who we were and what we were there for, and she made a quick exit. But still, you should’ve seen her face! Family Policy Alliance® will continue to oppose the misguided Equality Act and Fairness for All legislation pushed by Speaker Pelosi because the Gospel of Jesus Christ still has the power to radically transform lives——just ask those who are Changed. We hope you will continue to join us in ensuring that those who have been Changed aren’t silenced and the Gospel continues to be free for all in America. Stephanie Curry, Esq. Policy Manager