BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Rev. Dr. Kevin Higgs helped kick off an $8.5 million, multi-year Human Rights Campaign-funded effort to expand LGBT rights in the South on Wednesday, lending his voice in support of gays and lesbians in churches. The Methodist minister, who pastors Birmingham's Church of the Reconciler, said that at times churches have made the "most divisive, and hurtful, and harmful acts and statements" about gays.

Higgs called on pastors "of whatever denomination" to support and encourage gay and lesbian people in their congregations. "It's time for the hate to stop," Higgs said. "I'm all in favor of separation of church and state, and I'm all in favor of separation of church and hate, too."

Higgs was one of seven community leaders - including two activists, four ministers, and a poet - who aided Chad Griffin, president of the national LGBT rights advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, jumpstart the Project One America campaign in Birmingham. According to Griffin, the goal of the campaign is to bring employee and housing non-discrimination protections to LGBT Americans in Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas, and to improve the lives of gay, lesbian, bi, and transgender people in the South.

Griffin and Higgs were joined by the Southern Poverty Law Center's Sam Wolfe, Equality Alabama chair Ben Cooper, TC Caldwell, the founder of CoffeeHouse Poets in Huntsville, Pentacostal minister Felicia McKinzy, Lilly Hill Church pastor David Lewis, and Covenant Community Church pastor Rev. J.R. Finney II.

"It's time for people to stand up, speak out. We are not looking for special rights. We have certain rights inherent to citizens of this country. We don't want no more, and we're not going to settle for any less."

Felicia McKinzy, who describes herself as a Pentecostal minister, said she is a "quadruple minority: I'm black, I'm female, I'm a minister, and I'm a lesbian."

"In the great Bible Belt of the state of Alabama, it would seem ironic that we would shun a people when we are called by our God to love people," McKinzy said. "We must admit to ourselves and to others that God's love is inclusive. Therefore, no man, woman, or child is denied the right to live."

HRC's Project One America project in Alabama will be run by Brad Clark. The organization is the largest organizer in the South, according to Griffin, and one-third of the organization's members - 500,000 of HRC's 1.5 million members - are from the South, he said.

The money spent for Project One America in Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas will fund research, lobbying, grants to local and state groups and campaigns, three full-time employees dedicated to the South, five full-time employees that spend much of their time in the region, and expansion of HRC's existing programs in the region.

AL.com interviewed Chad Griffin about Project One America this week. Read that interview here.