In a blunt opinion piece at Religion Dispatches, author Patricia Miller, exposes what appears to be a new tactic by religious conservatives to advance their agenda opposing LGBT rights in the US, following the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision. Thursday night, 4 MAY, the House Armed Services Committee passed out of committee the Defense Appropriations Bill. Attached to the bill is an amendment by Rep. Steve Russell (R-OK) requiring that all government contracts grant religious organizations the protections and exemptions of the Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Neither of those laws provide anti-discrimination protection to LGBT folks.
Organizations which support LGBT rights, such as the Coalition Against Religious Discrimination, fear that this is a tactic aimed at knocking out the protections provided by President Obama’s 2014 executive order that barred discrimination by federal contractors with regard to sexual orientation or gender identity.
Read the full opinion piece, Defense Bill Contains Stealth Attack On LGBT Rights at Religion Dispatches.
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When I lived in Oklahoma as a child, they had a Democrat as Governor~ what happened to Oklahoma? They’ve gone stark raving mad with ultra-conservative agendas! It’s difficult to keep up with their conniving brain thinking to get the anti-human rights agenda into law! I am so puzzled how Oklahoma went down this negative and scary path! Very tragic.
Too often, religious organizations already are exempt from provisions like the Fair Labor Standards Act and equal employment opportunity. Indeed, several jurisdictions near me specifically exempt houses of worship, even for things like sexual harassment.
No surprise here. After all, State legislators have modeled this behavior time and time again.