Julian Bond: LGBT equality should have a home in the South

Make no doubt about it — our country is moving forward to create safer spaces for all people, and our efforts have grown to include our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender brothers, sisters and friends. But as America progresses, Mississippi is falling back.

Hours before the Supreme Court decided to take on marriage equality cases, violent graffiti that called for the deaths of LGBT Americans was found on the wall of a downtown Jackson building. On the same Tuesday night President Obama called marriage a civil right for the very first time and referenced lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in his State of the Union address, the Starkville Board of Alderman callously repealed a LGBT-inclusive resolution that had served to welcome and affirm all Starkville residents, and took away their health benefits in one fell legislative swoop. In Rankin County, students at a high school who wanted to organize a club to provide much-needed support for LGBT students were stymied by prejudice, leaders at the school voting purposefully to stop the club from forming and saying that they “wanted to limit organizations … on campus that we don’t want to endorse and don’t want.”

What does this mean? It means that LGBT Mississippians remain subject to laws and attitudes that devalue their very personhood. It means a state longing to move forward is being pulled back by so-called leaders who put enmity ahead of equality. It means our dream of a better future for all of us has been delayed once again.

But what has happened in Mississippi over the past few weeks doesn’t paint a true picture of the Magnolia State. Mississippians know sexual orientation or gender identity shouldn’t matter when it comes to working hard and taking care of your neighbor. Mississippians know all children are valued, no matter who they are. And Mississippians know that above all, treating one another with dignity and respect is what counts.

The fight for basic civil rights is not a quest for superiority or an unvoiced desire for power. It is, at its root, a battle to raise us all up. We all deserve the right to try and fail, move forward and fall back, and ultimately succeed on our own merits and individual gifts. But for many of us, our ability to dream of a greater and more brilliant future is limited by the color of our skin, the texts of our religious tomes, and the gender of whom we love and who we are.

The push for full equality for all Americans has always come with hurdles and setbacks. But we are not dissuaded from our path. LGBT Mississippians and their families yearn for a better day, one that we can work together to create. Let’s begin right now.

Julian Bond is chairman emeritus of the NAACP and a leader of the American Civil Rights Movement.