Kudos to Hillary: Equality as a Moral Imperative

We all want an America defined by deep and meaningful equality, from civil rights to labor rights, from women’s rights to gay rights … from ending discrimination to promoting unionization, to providing help for the most important job there is: caring for our families.

Hillary Clinton’s speech endorsing Barack Obama today was a class act.

Commentators are already noting that a passion sometimes absent from her campaign speeches came through in the latter part of the speech, when she made the statements above.

Re: gay rights, I encourage Mrs. Clinton to use her influence now to press her United Methodist Church and the institutions it sponsors to put into practice—and not merely talk about—its Social Principles. In this church that has such disproportionate influence in Main Street USA, there is much work to do be done to deal with the ugly prejudice that manifested itself again at the latest General Conference.

Were you listening, bishops of the United Methodist Church? Were you listening, good layfolks in the United Methodist Church? Deep and meaningful equality: not lip-service equality, not equality that is printed on pieces of paper but violated in your institutional practice.

Deep and meaningful equality for gay human beings: equality is a moral imperative.