Activists Hail Jimmy Carter’s LGBTQ Rights Legacy

December 30, 2024 Civil Rights, Democrats

Via press release from the Human Rights Campaign:

“All of us at the Human Rights Campaign feel an immense loss with the passing of former President Jimmy Carter,” said Kelley Robinson, President of the Human Rights Campaign. “In recent years, he became a prominent voice in support of LGBTQ+ rights, speaking out for marriage equality at a time when most national leaders in the U.S. still opposed it. For decades after he left the White House, he continued to make public service his enduring priority through his work with Habitat for Humanity and the Carter Presidential Center, cementing his reputation as a champion for human rights and as one of the all time great former presidents. We extend our deepest condolences to his family and all who mourn him.”

Serving as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981, Carter, during his term, launched the White House Initiative on HBCUs, which gave additional federal support to Historically Black Colleges and Universities. In 1977, he became the first president to have staff members meet at the White House with gay and lesbian rights activists.

The former president became a supporter of marriage equality in his later years, speaking out in favor of same-sex marriage starting in 2011, prior to the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling that made it the law of the land in 2015. “I think Jesus would encourage any love affair if it was honest and sincere and was not damaging to anyone else and I don’t see that gay marriage damages anyone else,” he later said during an interview in 2018.

The Advocate reports:

In 2005, upon the publication of his book Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis, he gave an interview to The Advocate. Reporter Sean Kennedy said, “You’re a Christian, but you don’t have a problem with gay men and lesbians as many other Christians do. Why?”

Carter responded, “I’m a worshipper of Jesus Christ, who never mentioned homosexuals in any way — certainly not in a deleterious fashion. And when it has been mentioned in the New Testament, it’s been combined with things like selfishness or something like that. So I’ve never looked upon it as any sort of reason to condemn a person. I think it’s an inherent characteristic just like other things that we do with our lives.”

As the Advocate notes, during his term Carter also came out against California’s infamous Briggs Initiative, which would have banned LGBTQ people from teaching in public schools.



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