Charleston native Aunt Clark learned to endure discrimination in conservative South Carolina, one of about two dozen states with few or no laws protecting LGBTQ people.
The 41-year-old man ran away from a decades-long career in the food and beverage industry, in part she says, because of customer discrimination.
“I don’t want to be in this fight and I’ve fought for my whole life,” says Clark.
So she started her own business by teaching tourists a coastal tradition: how to catch blue crabs. She never dreamed that she could be her own boss. But she made it happen.
“It came from my tough skin of being a gay black woman who lives in the South,” says Clark. She hopes that the Equality Act will become law and make life easier for others.
The Equality Act amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include LGBTQ people. This would make discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodation illegal. The bill first passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 2019, but died in the Republican-controlled Senate. It was approved by the House again on February 25.
Defenders have greater hopes, this time, that Democrats will control the Senate and that President Biden has indicated that he would turn the bill into law. The question now is whether a sufficient number of Republicans would support the legislation so that the Equality Act could resist obstruction on the part of those who oppose LGBTQ rights.
Clark and his wife 11 years ago, Katie Killham, would like to have children. But they are discouraged by cases of LGBTQ couples being rejected by adoption agencies and orphanages. They say the Equality Act can change lives.
“I think I would be willing to hire an adoption agency, instead of just moving on, if I knew that they legally have to treat us like everyone else,” says Killham.
The law would not only prohibit federally funded agencies from discriminating against same-sex couples, but would also exclude religious beliefs as a justification for discrimination. And that worries conservative religious leaders.
“I think that when you take religious freedom off the table, you are really touching the wound of the Constitution,” said Dave Wilson, president of the Palmetto Family Council, an organization he says has a biblical view on questions. Wilson believes that the Equality Act violates his First Amendment rights.
“I want my religious freedom and my ability as a Christian to be respected as much as a transgender person wants to be respected when I chose to be transgender,” said Wilson.
Trans people say it is not a choice. It is who they are. And many religious groups support LGBTQ rights.
Claire Wofford, a political scientist at the College of Charleston, says the Equality Act can lead to a flood of lawsuits in places where discrimination has been quietly tolerated.
“In South Carolina and other states like us, you are potentially on a collision course between equality and religious freedom,” says Wofford.
Wofford believes that the issue of religious freedom is likely to be decided by judges. It points to precedents where courts exclude religion as a defense to race-based discrimination.
“In certain cases, the government’s interest is so important that it outweighs the right to religious freedom,” she says.
If the Equality Act were to become law, one question would certainly be asked to the courts is whether the federal government has a convincing interest in protecting LGBTQ individuals from discrimination in a way that bothers some faith-conserving people.
Chase Glenn believes so. He is the executive director of a Charleston-based advocacy group, Alliance for Full Acceptance. He is also a transgender man married to children.
“I think there is an emotional tribute that a lot of LGBTQ people have experienced and carried with them,” says Glenn.
He is looking at a series of anti-LGBTQ measures in state legislatures across the country. One in South Carolina would have removed people like him from a hate crime bill.
“Is it the concern of what if I get discriminated against? What if someone finds out about me?”
Glenn says these attempts are proof that his community needs protection from cohesive federal civil rights.
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