Earlier this fall, songwriter Tena Clark debuted “My, My Mississippi,” a gospel anthem for a troubled moment. The song was inspired by the state’s H.B. 1523, which permits discrimination on the grounds that it is protecting the rights of individuals to believe in ‘traditional’ marriage, that sex has no place outside of marriage, and that gender is binary and immutably determined at birth.
Clark’s song is a call to the LGBTQ community and allies in the Magnolia State who want something different for their home — something that looks more like acceptance and equality.
“My my Mississippi,” she writes, “you keep hating, we keep waiting, don’t you want to heal your past?”
It’s a lyrically and musically gorgeous piece, so I do advice you listen. What I like about it, above all else, is that you can hear the heartache in her words. She isn’t writing from a place of anger or scorn, but love and a desperate desire to see change.
GLAAD is now running a multi-platform #MyMississippi campaign, and a march against H.B. 1523 is planned for Sunday in Jackson. If you can’t make the rally, and honestly most of us can’t, one action you can take is to buy My My Mississippi on iTunes. Proceeds go to the Human Rights Campaign’s Project One America.
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