Rev. Nancy Wilson, global moderator of the Metropolitan Community Churches, spoke in Hattiesburg, Miss., on April 10, 2016. (Photo courtesy MCC)

HATTIESBURG, Miss. — The global moderator of the Metropolitan Community Churches traveled to Mississippi on April 10 to criticize the state’s controversial religious freedom law.

Rev. Nancy Wilson spoke at a press conference in Hattiesburg after attending services at Joshua Generation MCC. Rev. Brandiilyne Mangum-Dear, who founded the Dandelion Project, an LGBT support and advocacy group in Mississippi’s Pine Belt, heads the congregation.

“When they do this in the name of Christianity, they are perverting the gospel or they haven’t read the gospels and have no idea who Jesus is,” said Wilson.

The press conference took place five days after Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signed the religious freedom bill — House Bill 1523 — into law.

Comedian Ellen DeGeneres and Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts, who grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and came out in 2013, are among those who have publicly spoken out against HB 1523. Bryan Adams announced earlier this week that he had cancelled an April 14 concert in Biloxi over the religious freedom law.