Montgomery rally for LGBTQ rights: ‘We’re still fighting’

Alabamians from across the state gathered Tuesday to march from the Alabama Supreme Court to the state Capitol, holding rainbow flags and signs supporting the LGBT community.

More than 100 people protested a list of bills from the Alabama legislature, including bills that force college athletes to play on teams that align with the gender on their birth certificates, a bill that puts the gender binary into state law and a bill banning drag performances in Alabama.

“I know that God stands with the oppressed and the marginalized, that God has made me fearlessly and wonderfully,” said Darcy Corbitt, a pastor from Auburn.

Following the march, speakers gathered to address the crowd, which lined the steps of the Alabama State House, and asked lawmakers to spend their time on other issues.

Carmarion D. Anderson-Harvey, the Alabama State Director of the Human Rights Campaign’s Project One America, referenced a recent mass shooting in Dadeville, Alabama.

“Did our lawmakers do anything to address the mass shooting crisis in Alabama?” she asked.

The crowd yelled back: “No.”

“They continued their tirade against LGBTQ plus community, drag queens and particularly the transgender community. This also includes families struggling to pay their bills and to keep their kids safe and healthy,” Anderson-Harvey said.

The group protested eight bills, including:

At one point, Corbitt stood next to a counter-protester and sang to drown him out.

“I’m here to protect them, and to show them that there are Christians who care and Christians who are willing to stand up for them, to speak the love of God and the love of Jesus to them,” Corbitt said of attendees in the LGBT community.

Corbitt, who is a transgender woman, said the man’s words didn’t upset her, but she didn’t “feel any negative feelings, because I know what he’s saying isn’t true.”

Rev. Marjorie Ragona, an 94-year-old Episcopal pastor from Birmingham, said she’s been protesting in support of rights for the LGBT community for 50 years, and she’s tired of it.

“We have been through AIDS, we’ve been through marriage and we’re still fighting” Ragona said as the crowd in front of her cheered. “If you’re not mad, you aren’t thinking.”

She said folks in the LGBT community have fought for places to live, jobs, marriage and the right to be treated for their illnesses, and now, their children are fighting for the right to get the treatment they need.

“If they’re using religion against us, let’s remember that if your religion teaches hate, you’re in the wrong religion,” she said. “I have raised three children in the middle of the gay community and I have never in my life had anybody hurt those children. They’ve been raised by my gay brothers, my lesbian sisters and my drag queen friends. If it hadn’t been for the drag queens, we would’ve never gotten through the AIDS epidemic.”

Corbitt said she’s worked with people in the LGBT community for more than a decade and added that they’re of the most “wonderful, nice” people she’s ever known. She said claims ”about drag queens being child molesters and trans people being sick, perverted freaks” are not based in reality.

“I think that the people of Alabama, what we can agree on is that everyone should be allowed to associate and express themselves the way that they want, provided it doesn’t hurt people, and there’s no evidence that being LGBT hurts anybody,” she said.

HB405, called the “What is a Woman” bill, limits the definition of gender to male and female based on reproductive body parts. It’s up for a public hearing Wednesday morning.