Karen Pulfer Focht / ASSOCIATED PRESS A gay couple's wedding rings sit on a table in their Memphis, Tennessee, home in March 2015, just three months before the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

Progressive religious leaders in Tennessee have joined forces to denounce a slate of bills that would curb the rights of the state’s queer residents. More than 120 rabbis and pastors from across Tennessee have added their names to a statement opposing the anti-LGBTQ proposals, which were introduced in the state’s Republican-dominated legislature this year. “They promote discrimination rather than justice and demean the worth of LGBTQ people in our state,” the statement declares. “We call on people of good will to join us in speaking out for basic fairness.” Rev. Mary Louise McCullough, pastor at Nashville’s Second Presbyterian Church and one of the statement’s signers, called the bills “regressive politically, theologically and intellectually.” “Being a person of faith means speaking out when necessary to resist and protect people from this kind of hostile act on the part of the state,” McCullough told HuffPost.

Ron Thomas via Getty Images Six anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in the Tennessee legislature this year.

The six bills would provide legal protections for Tennesseans with conservative religious beliefs to discriminate against the LGBTQ community in various ways. LGBTQ activists like the Tennessee Equality Project and their allies say the legislation would trample the civil rights of queer Tennesseans. The bills have a wide range of specific goals ― including banning same-sex marriage in the state, protecting adoption agencies that don’t want to place kids with LGBTQ parents, and making it a crime for transgender people to use locker rooms that match their gender identities. Last week, one of the bills advanced in the state’s House of Representatives. House Bill 563 seeks to immunize private businesses from local laws that prohibit anti-LGBTQ discrimination. Rev. Paul Purdue, senior pastor at Belmont United Methodist Church, said he signed the joint statement because he believes legislation that categorically denies certain groups the ability to adopt, get married or conduct business is “oppressive and unjust.” “Jesus’ great commandment is to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves,” Purdue told HuffPost. “If we love people, we offer them the same rights that we expect.”

Wade Payne / ASSOCIATED PRESS Val Tanco (right) and Sophie Jesty smile during a news conference in Knoxville, Tennessee, on June 26, 2015. They were among the many plaintiffs in the Supreme Court's landmark case on marriage equality.

The clergy statement, which was organized by the Tennessee Equality Project, sought to gather an array of voices from across the state. While the project said some of the signers were evangelical leaders, most were not. According to the Pew Research Center, 52 percent of adults in Tennessee are evangelical Protestants. Studies have consistently shown that, compared to other religious groups in the U.S., white evangelicals tend to strongly oppose advances in LGBTQ rights. A recent survey from the Public Religion Research Institute found that only 47 percent of adults in Tennessee oppose religion-based service refusals ― meaning they believe that small business owners shouldn’t be allowed to deny service to lesbian or gay customers based on religious belief. Nationwide, about 57 percent of adults oppose religiously based service refusals. At the same time, Tennesseans appear to be supportive of nondiscrimination protections for LGBT Americans. About 64 percent of Tennesseans surveyed by PRRI said they favor laws that would protect LGBT people against discrimination in jobs, public accommodations and housing. Sixty-nine percent of Americans said the same. Rabbi Joshua Kullock, of Nashville’s West End Synagogue, said legislation that punishes people for their sexual orientation is an “affront to their human dignity.” “It might be that legislators find inspiration for their laws in ancient religious texts and traditions but, as they do so, they are also overlooking other religious texts and traditions promoting love, inclusion and understanding,” Kullock, a Conservative rabbi, told HuffPost. “I’d rather base my religious convictions on those latter values.”

Mark Humphrey / ASSOCIATED PRESS Lesbian parents kiss in Nashville on June 26, 2013, as they read the results of a Supreme Court ruling on whether same-sex couples can receive certain tax, health and pension benefits.