Email this page

Treasuring All Members
of the Human Community

An AFSC Statement on the Civil Rights of Lesbian,
Gay & Bisexual People and All People

Approved by AFSC Board of Directors
September 25, 1994

Though fear and hatred have social, political and economic causes, they always present a spiritual problem. We believe religious people are called both to address the root causes of fear and hatred and to find ways to replace them with understanding and respect. Yet today we see persistent attempts, in the name of religion, to encourage and inflame fear of difference and hatred of "the other". Individuals and groups who identify a narrow "Americanism" with their understanding of the Christian faith seek to impose theirs as the only legitimate religious, moral and social values in the United States. They dismiss as unchristian or irreligious any whose religious convictions differ from theirs. They seek to develop a political power base that would impose a theocratic test on future governmental decisions and actions, and mandate exclusiveness rather than inclusiveness, and discrimination in place of equal rights for all. In what they proclaim a 64 cultural war", they are focusing their attacks particularly, but by no means exclusively, on lesbian, gay and bisexual people.

Our religious beliefs take us in a different direction. The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) has a long history of action against discrimination, whether based on race, gender, disability, religion, national origin or legal status. Over the past two decades, we have also come to understand the need to work toward removing practices of discrimination against lesbian, gay and bisexual persons. Our belief in the sanctity and worth of each human being calls us to engage in a struggle — though never a war, for no person is our enemy — for greater justice for all people, greater inclusiveness in communities and institutions. As part of that struggle we support legal protections against discrimination in employment (and employment related benefits), housing, public accommodations, education and other areas of life, including domestic partnerships.

Hard won protections in these areas are now under assault. Obscuring their purposes behind such slogans as "no special rights," and "traditional family values," in many states and cities proponents of anti­gay initiatives are working to remove existing constitutional protections for lesbian, gay and. bisexual people. What they describe as "special rights" are guarantees of equal protection for all people, including lesbian, gay and bisexual people, against discrimination in jobs, housing, health care and economic livelihood. They and their allies also seek to control school curricula, and to control or abolish inclusive sexuality education in schools and libraries.

Targeting communities of color,, they encourage homophobia, a specific complex of fear and hatred, by claiming that these communities can protect their rights only by denying the same rights to others. Yet people with long records of opposition to civil rights and Indian treaty rights are to be found in the leadership of organizations spearheading this campaign.

The assault on the rights of lesbian, gay and bisexual people is a tactic in a larger agenda to oppose or limit civil rights and civil liberties for all people. The campaign on behalf of "traditional family values" feeds xenophobia, misogyny, anti­Semitism, racism and homophobia. It would restrict the rights of women, including reproductive rights, and the rights of people of color and of people on welfare, among others. In many places, the "cultural war" involves promoting "English only" initiatives and legislation denying rights to immigrants.

We urge all who are concerned about the intentions of this campaign 1) to inform themselves about what is happening in their own communities, 2) to join with others in the religious community to assert a spiritual basis for treasuring all members of the human community and for dismantling the institutions of discrimination in all of its forms, 3) to join in actions to preserve and extend civil rights protections for all in this society, 4) to support the long­term movement for the rights of gay, lesbian and bisexual people, and 5) to reach out to those who express fear, anger, and hatred, and by engaging respectfully with them, to commend the deep religious values of hope, trust and love for the neighbor.

^ Top of page