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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhen Will Social Conservatives Stop Demanding Special Rights?
This week, the Kansas House of Representatives passed House Bill 2453, "An act concerning religious freedoms with respect to marriage." Despite its name, this bill isn't about religious freedom. It's about creating new special rights (yes, those dreaded special rights) for people with anti-gay views.
The bill would protect the ability of any individual, government agency, or "religious entity" (which includes a business operated in accordance with its owner's religious views) to refuse service based on sincere religious beliefs about sex or gender, and to refuse to recognize any marriage or similar arrangement for those reasons even if such service would otherwise be required under Kansas law.
In other words, a special new right to discriminate on a particular basis.
Republicans aren't normally keen on creating special workplace rights for public employees, but this bill would let government workers refuse to do their jobs if doing so conflicted with such sincere religious views. Let's say you work for the Kansas Department for Children and Families and you don't want to process a foster care application from a same-sex couple, even though that's within the agency's policy. Or you're a police officer and you don't want to respond to a domestic abuse complaint from a same-sex couple. If this bill becomes law, that will become your right.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/when-will-social-conservatives-stop-demanding-special-rights-2014-2#ixzz2tPwhgnk5
Blus4u
(608 posts)until their complicit legislators are handed their hats and shown the door.
Peace
BuelahWitch
(9,083 posts)Turn their BS on them and make them eat it.