LGBTQ+ rights activists have a new ally: United Methodist churches in Alabama. On Friday, the church’s North Alabama Conference voted in favor of a call to end the church’s ban on gay marriages and gay clergy members, AL.com reported. The conference’s resolution urges the church to cut a phrase reading “homosexuality is incompatible with Christianity” from its laws. “The current language in the current Book of Discipline on human sexuality has fostered painful division,” the body’s resolution reads, referencing the church’s governing text. A division over the United Methodist Church's evolving stance on gay marriage and clergy deepened a schism that has led a growing number of conservative churches to leave the denomination.