The co-host of
ABC’s popular Good Morning America, and a Mississippi native, is opposed to the
tate’s new law permitting discrimination against LGBTI residents based on
religious convictions.
Robin Roberts,
who came out in 2013, released her statement on March 8.
‘My longtime
partner, Amber, and I have always felt welcomed in my home state, and it hurts
my soul to think of anyone not feeling welcome,’ the statement said, according
to the Associated
Press.
‘It’s always been a deeply held belief of mine that everyone,
everywhere should be treated equally. I’m proud that my beloved mother and
father taught me as a child growing up in Mississippi to focus on the many
things we all have in common, not our few differences. And what we all deserve
to have in common is the right to be treated equally.’
Roberts and
Amber Laign have been together since 2005. The couple married in 2014.
The newscaster,
who has connections with the Gulf Coast town of Pass Christian, appears on this
year’s cover of the Mississippi Tourism Association guide (see below). The
state’s motto is the Hospitality State.
Roberts notes
she agreed to be on the cover ‘last year well before recent events.’
This past week, Governor
Phil Bryant signed the proposal, known as the ‘Protecting Freedom of
Conscience from Government Discrimination Act,’ into law after it passed the
state Senate by a vote of 31-17.
‘The
legislation is designed in the most targeted manner possible to prevent
government interference in the lives of the people from which all power to the
state is derived,’ the governor insisted in a statement.
The law
protects religious institutions if they decide not to recognize the legality of
same-sex marriages or refuse to place children with qualified LGBTI families.
It also
protects state employees fom not issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples
and sanctions ‘conversion therapy’ to ‘cure’ LGBTI people.
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