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Clergy members from across West Virginia show support for Fairness Act

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — More than 100 clergy members from across West Virginia have come out in support of the Fairness Act, just days before the 2020 legislative session gets underway.

With many clergy members standing beside him, Andrew Schneider, the Executive Director of Fairness West Virginia, announced the support inside the Governor’s Cabinet and Conference Room at the state Capitol on Monday morning.

Schneider joined Rev. Jim Wicker of Cross of Grace Lutheran Church in Hurricane on Monday’s MetroNews ‘Talkline’ to discuss why the support is right and how it gives the proposed change a major boost.

“This is a proposed change to the Human Rights Act that embodies a major principle among most faiths which is the golden rule. Treat others the way that you would like to be treated,” Schneider said.

Andrew Schneider

“In the past, religion has been weaponized to harm the LGBTQ community. This is a huge show of support to provide the view that religion is, in fact, the underlying support for the Fairness Act and what Fairness West Virginia is trying to accomplish.”

The bill would add sexual orientation and gender identity to classes protected for employment, housing and public accommodations.

According to Fairness West Virginia, both sexual orientation and gender identity would be added as protected classes to the state’s Human Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act.

Some lawmakers have expressed concern about the possibility of creating a protected class. House Speaker Roger Hanshaw previously said, “I think we have to be very careful about creating protected classes if that’s what the bill does. We need to make sure there are not unintended consequences.”

Schneider responded to those concerns on MetroNews ‘Talkline’ about why the classes are necessary.

“We have laws against several things that we as a society consider to be wrong and immoral,” Schneider said of creating a protected class.

“That is in fact because we need to compel certain people. Not everyone but certain people.”

State Senate President Mitch Carmichael said last week he is still uncertain about his position on proposed nondiscrimination legislation. He said he is evaluating “various options.”

Mitch Carmichael

“He (Carmichael) says, and I believe this to be true, that he wants to look at the legislation and may want to make some changes,” Schneider said. “It’s our job to convince him and other leaders that the bill that we have written is the right way to amend the human rights act.”

In a release, Fairness West Virginia called the act common-sense piece of legislation that would ensure all LGBTQ people in West Virginia are safe from discrimination and able to live, work and raise their families.

Jim Wicker

Wicker, who has a son and a brother who are gay, said on ‘Talkline’ that as a Christian, he is a supporter of not discriminating against anyone. He said he tells parishioners that their God is a God of grace.

“There are a lot of things that were written in the Bible, a lot of contradictions in the Bible,” Wicker said. “Things that we know now about the human body that we did not know back then. I have always say that Jesus said he came to fulfill all the law and if he thought all that much about it, I think he would have mentioned something.”

The 2020 regular legislative session begins on Wednesday at Noon.





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