{"id":48026,"date":"2021-03-10T17:45:34","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T00:45:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/lgbtq-rights-bill-ignites-debate-over-religious-liberty\/"},"modified":"2021-03-11T00:45:34","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T00:45:34","slug":"lgbtq-rights-bill-ignites-debate-over-religious-liberty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/lgbtq-rights-bill-ignites-debate-over-religious-liberty\/","title":{"rendered":"LGBTQ rights bill ignites debate over religious liberty"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Associated
Associated Press file<br><br>Jim Conrad, pastor of Towne View Baptist Church, looks at a copy of a letter from the Southern Baptist Convention\u2019s credentials committee, in Kennesaw, Ga., on Feb. 18. During an SBC meeting in late February, its executive committee ousted the church because it accepted LGBTQ people into its congregation. The public policy arm of the SBC, the nation\u2019s largest Protestant denomination, calls the Equality Act that would extend federal civil rights protections to LGBTQ people, \u201cthe most significant threat to religious liberty ever considered in the United States Congress.\u201d<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation\u2019s largest Protestant denomination, calls the act \u201cthe most significant threat to religious liberty ever considered in the United States Congress.\u201d The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has assailed it as discriminating against people of faith.<\/p>\n

The act is the latest version of proposals previously introduced in Congress without success. It would amend existing civil rights law to explicitly cover sexual orientation and gender identity, with protections extending to employment, housing, education and public accommodations, such as restaurants, theaters, hotels, libraries, gas stations and retail stores.<\/p>\n

The bill maintains longstanding exemptions for houses of worship and other religious institutions \u2013 for example, they could limit employment to people who shared their faith\u2019s beliefs and could refuse to perform same-sex marriages.<\/p>\n

But faith-based homeless shelters and adoption or foster-care agencies that receive federal funding would not be permitted to discriminate against LGBTQ people. And it would be more difficult for a wide range of businesses to justify anti-LGBTQ discrimination, regardless of personal or religious beliefs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be very difficult for Christian schools, Christian colleges, even in some cases for the ministries of Christian churches to proceed,\u201d the Rev. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said in a recent radio broadcast. \u201cThis will change not just a few things, it will fundamentally change almost everything on the nation\u2019s landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n

LGBTQ activists view the opposition to the bill as a consequence of longstanding hostility to their community\u2019s advances, such as the legalization of same-sex marriage and the growth of a transgender rights movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur opponents are seeking to expand religious exemptions and create a second class of citizens,\u201d said Alphonso David, an attorney who heads the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ-rights organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn their narrative, I could walk into a store as a Black man and not face discrimination, but walk in as a gay man and get thrown out,\u201d David said.<\/p>\n

There is no date yet for when hearings will begin in the Senate, where by rule the bill would need 60 votes to pass. So far no Senate Republicans are endorsing the bill.<\/p>\n

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine was the lone Republican co-sponsor when the legislation reached the Senate in 2019, but she has withdrawn that endorsement because revisions she hoped for were not made. Another relatively moderate Republican, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, says he can\u2019t support the bill because it would \u201cinappropriately threaten fundamental religious liberties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Utah enacted a law in 2015 establishing civil rights protections for LGBTQ people while also providing protections for religious freedom.<\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart, a Utah Republican, has introduced a similar bill in the House, the Fairness for All Act, supported by such entities as the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Romney says he would consider it if it reaches the Senate, but it is staunchly opposed by LGBTQ activists and congressional Democrats, who view the religious exemptions as too broad.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat bill is unacceptable because it creates two tiers of civil rights protections and sanctions discrimination against LGBTQ people in homeless shelters and foster care agencies,\u201d David said.<\/p>\n

Jennifer Pizer, director of law and policy for the LGBTQ rights organization Lambda Legal, said she expects \u201cintense conversation and negotiation\u201d in the Senate over the different approaches of the Equality Act and the Fairness for All Act.<\/p>\n

For many religious leaders, the Equality Act\u2019s codification of civil rights protections for transgender people is of particular concern.<\/p>\n

The act \u201cdenies the biblical truth that people were created in two, distinct God-given genders,\u201d wrote Ryan Fullerton, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, in a commentary last week. If it passes, he said, \u201cour God will be offended by this great evil.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Catholic bishops conference, for its part, said in a statement that the bill \u201ccodifies the new ideology of \u2018gender\u2019 in federal law, dismissing sexual difference and falsely presenting \u2018gender\u2019 as only a social construct.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bishops also contend it would require Catholic health care workers to support treatments and procedures associated with gender transition even if that went against their beliefs.<\/p>\n

Some Catholic activists were dismayed by the bishops\u2019 statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found it shockingly harsh and not at all in keeping with what Jesus and the Gospels are about,\u201d said Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the antithesis of the teaching of Pope Francis, who says we should ground our policies in the experience of those at the margins of society,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest who advocates for greater LGBTQ inclusion in the church, said he accepts the need for some religious exemptions.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the problem is that if every effort to prevent LGBTQ discrimination is opposed by the Catholic Church because it supposedly \u2018redefines gender,\u2019 then no efforts will be supported whatsoever,\u201d Martin said. \u201cThe question the church must ask itself is: When will we stand up against the real-life discrimination \u2013 the violence, harassment and bullying \u2013 that LGBTQ people encounter?\u201d<\/p>\n

Some Catholics also worry that by prohibiting discrimination based on sex, the Equality Act could compel doctors and hospitals to provide abortions even if they oppose the procedure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can speak from professional experience as a bioethicist that religious conscience protections are not high in the list of priorities for most of those who have power in medicine,\u201d Charles Camosy, a professor of theological and social ethics at Fordham University, said via email.<\/p>\n

Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Associated Press file<br><br>Jim Conrad, pastor of Towne View Baptist Church, looks at a copy of a letter from the Southern Baptist Convention\u2019s credentials committee, in Kennesaw, Ga., on Feb. 18. During an SBC meeting in late February, its executive committee ousted the church because it accepted LGBTQ people into its congregation. The public policy arm […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-48026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48026"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=48026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}