Former President, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Georgia native Jimmy Carter passed away on Dec. 29 at the age of 100, leaving behind a legacy of progressive values, racial advocacy, and early – albeit imperfect – LGBTQ+ support.
Carter was born on Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, a rural town about three hours south of Atlanta, where he was raised on his parents’ peanut farm. He died in the same town, in the house he and his wife Rosalynn – who passed in 2023 – spent the majority of their lives.
Carter graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1946 and began his service in the Navy as a submariner. He spent seven years in the service before leaving to take over the family business following the death of his father in 1953.
Carter began his political career in 1963 when he was elected as a state senator. He successfully ran for Georgia governor in 1970 before running for U.S. president as a progressive Southern Democrat in 1976.
Carter was an early supporter of the civil rights movement and became a leading voice within the Democratic Party for the end of racial segregation before the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. During his presidential campaign, Carter established what would be a longstanding allyship of the LGBTQ+ community when asked if he would sign the Equality Act into law if it passed the legislature and landed on his desk as president.
“I will certainly sign it, because I don’t think it’s right to single out homosexuals for abuse or special harassment,” he said.
Carter’s administration was the first to welcome gay and lesbian rights activists to the White House. On March 26, 1977, fourteen prominent gay rights leaders from around the country met to provide recommendations to different federal agencies to improve policies and services to the LGBTQ+ community. Carter did not attend the meeting, but White House officials said he was aware of the meeting and supported the efforts of the White House staffers – a group which was then called the National Gay Task Force – who met with the leaders. It was at this meeting that activist George Raya wrote a paper about the effect of hepatitis on gay people at the time – a paper which helped fund a hepatitis research project in San Francisco and provided valuable information to AIDS research, according to the Advocate.
Carter’s early support of the LGBTQ+ community wasn’t perfect. Carter disappointed gay activists at the Democratic National Convention in 1976 when convention officials, at the request of the Carter campaign, refused to include a gay rights plank as part of the Democratic party’s approved platform. Furthermore, LGBTQ+ leaders criticized Carter for being slow to speak out against California’s Proposition 6 in 1978, a ballot measure that would ban gay and lesbian individuals from working in California public schools. However, Harvey Milk wrote a letter to Carter calling on him to take a stand against Prop 6, and four months later, Carter spoke out against Prop 6 during a campaign speech in support of California Democratic candidates. The proposition was defeated by a vote of 58.4 percent to 41.5 percent.
Carter spent only one term in office, losing to Ronald Reagan in 1980 amid economic problems and the Iranian hostage crisis. However, his humanitarian work and public support of the LGBTQ+ community only continued after his presidency.
In 2005, he told Sean Kennedy at the Advocate that he was “a worshipper of Jesus Christ, who never mentioned homosexuals in any way… I’ve never looked upon [sexuality] 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.”
In 2007, he called for an end to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” calling it “the only law in America today that regulates a group of citizens, then prohibits them from identifying themselves and speaking up on their own behalf.”
He was an explicit supporter of marriage equality before the Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court ruling in 2015, telling HuffPost in 2012 (roughly two months before then-President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden voiced their support for same-sex marriage) – “I personally think it is very fine for gay people to be married in civil ceremonies.”
“All of us at the Human Rights Campaign feel an immense loss with the passing of former President Jimmy Carter,” said Kelley Robinson, the 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.”
A ceremony and memorial service will then be held at the Carter Presidential Center starting at 3:45 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 4. He will lie in repose for mourners to come and pay their respects starting at 6 p.m. on Saturday until 6 a.m. on Jan. 7.
President Joe Biden declared a National Day of Mourning on Jan. 9 for Carter, which will coincide with his national funeral service at Washington National Cathedral. Biden is expected to deliver a eulogy.
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