(WBAP/KLIF) – Interfaith advocacy network, Texas Impact, has announced the launch of a new campaign featuring four public service announcements opposing discriminatory legislation targeting transgender Texans.
The 30-second spots will begin appearing online and on social media this week and feature Christian leaders from across Texas explaining why they oppose the so-called “bathroom bills” being considered by the Texas Legislature. Versions of the bill would only allow a person to use the restroom specific to the gender on their birth certificate. Texas Impact Executive Director, Bee Moorhead says the PSA’s are part of the interfaith non-profit’s “Mainstream, Not Extreme: Texas Faith Community Against Discrimination” campaign to correct misconceptions about the faith community’s position on the legislation.
“Mainstream faith communities across our state, from the people in the pews all the way up to national denominational leaders, oppose these bills,” Moorhead says. “A few extremist individuals who support this legislation have been working hard to convince legislators that they represent the unified voice of the faithful, but that’s simply not the case.”
Moorhead says conservative Christians, such as Baptists and the nondenominational, are particularly frustrated, and that the PSAs feature authoritative voices who can set the record straight.
Two of the videos feature the Rev. Dr. Jim Bankston, a well-known United Methodist pastor from Houston. In the spots, Bankston acknowledges that “it can be hard to understand what it means to be transgender,” but counsels that Christians are called to love everyone. Another PSA features Pastor Griff Martin of First Baptist Church in Austin. Martin reflects that as a pastor, he has gotten to know “so many of God’s beloved,including God’s transgender children.” He says that all people have equality before God. Kimberly Shappley, a Houston area non-denominational lay leader and mother of a transgender child, is also featured in one of the spots. Shappley says the bathroom bills run counter to her conservative Christian values and make her fear for her daughter’s safety.
The PSA’s were produced by an Austin-based digital motion media company.
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