Last week U.S. Congressman John Lewis (D-GA) joined other members of the Congressional Black Caucus to announce their support of Hillary Clinton as the Democratic presidential nominee. Ms. Clinton, former secretary of state and a former U.S. senator from New York, is in a surprisingly tight race with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for the nomination.
After endorsing Ms. Clinton, Lewis, a veteran of the struggle for civil rights in the 1960s, implied Sanders, another veteran of the movement, lied about his participation in historically important civil rights events of the era. Shame on John Lewis for insulting an honorable man like Bernie Sanders and praising a dishonorable and dishonest politician like Clinton.
While Lewis was playing the role of toady for Hillary Clinton the Georgia House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed House Bill 757, the Pastor Protection Act. Representatives of both political parties spoke passionately for passage of the legislation which would prevent a Georgia minister from being forced to marry same-sex couples.
Same-sex couples I know would not consider being married in a church that did not support their right to marry or a church that would not support them as a family of faith in the church community. Apparently Georgia lawmakers feel they must protect their churches from marriages they do not believe are based on Christian faith.
Lewis has been a speaker at many LGBT events in recent years including the unveiling of the Harvey Milk stamp at the White House. Though Lewis never met Milk, he spoke passionately about the openly gay civil rights leader murdered in his supervisor office in San Francisco City Hall in November 1978 by fellow Supervisor Dan White.
If John Lewis is on board with LGBT rights, why wasn’t he in Georgia fighting against the Pastor Protection Act? Obviously, he felt it more to his advantage to be in Washington endorsing Clinton than in Atlanta endorsing LGBT rights. U.S. Ambassador to South Africa John Lewis? Shame on John Lewis.
At the Washington CBC news conference where he endorsed Hillary Clinton, Lewis disputed that Bernie Sanders ever attended any of the civil rights events of the 1960s the Vermonter said he participated in. Shame on John Lewis!
The pertinent question for LGBT voters is not where was Bernie Sanders 50 years ago? The pertinent question for 2016 is where was John Lewis while the Georgia House of Representatives was overwhelmingly voting to protect their pastors from being forced by Barack Obama and the U.S, Supreme Court to marry same-sex couples.
Message to John Lewis: There is work to do in your state where Hillary is hugely unpopular and the LGBT community needs you. You let your supporters, your state and yourself down, Mr. Lewis.
Lewis could have made a difference by being in Atlanta and speaking for something. Instead he was in Washington embarrassing himself by praising the dishonest Hillary “Wall Street” Clinton and insulting the honorable Bernie “Main Street” Sanders. Shame on John Lewis!
Jim Patterson spent formative years in the segregated South where his late father served with the Alabama National Guard during the civil rights struggle in the 1960s. The author has a non-speaking role as a reporter in the Golden Globe and Academy Award winning film “Selma.”
He is a writer and speaker based in Washington, D.C. JEPCapitolHill@gmail.com
