Texas Lawmaker Wants Constitutional ‘License To Discriminate’ Against LGBT Workers And Customers

[Galraedia]

Source: ThinkProgress

Texas businesses would be allowed to fire LGBT employees and turn away LGBT customers under a new proposal issued Monday by state Sen. Donna Campbell (R).

Campbell’s proposal would strengthen existing protections in Texas for the “right to act or refuse to act in a manner motivated by a sincerely held religious belief,” a legal maneuver that critics have described as a “license to discriminate.” This year, many state legislatures have considered putting the religious rights of business owners over the civil rights of would-be customers. Similar proposals in Kansas, North Carolina, South Dakota, Arizona, and Oregon ultimately failed this year, while a number of other states have held that the law protects LGBT folks from discrimination even if that discrimination is based in scripture.

Mississippi signed a license to discriminate into law, and Kentucky lawmakers overrode the governor’s veto to put their own religious freedom law into effect. In Pennsylvania, lawmakers who are trying to extend non-discrimination protections to LGBT couples have so far been stymied.

These laws have come into vogue after numerous anti-LGBT small business owners have refused service to LGBT clients in Kentucky, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont, New Mexico, Iowa, Colorado, and other states in recent years. Many of these disputes involve bakeries and other vendors who refuse to contract for services at same-sex weddings, but some businesses have refused to print Pride t-shirts or put rainbow frosting on an order of cookies.

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2014/11/11/3591183/texas-license-to-discriminate-constitution/

[Monk06]

1. So burying a woman up to her neck and stoning her to death because her husband accuses her

of adultery is OK? Because that is a sincerely held religious belief. So is letting the blood of sodomites be upon them.

And these pricks claim Obama is ignoring the constitution.

[CurtEastPoint]

2. Another NO BRAIN FUCKING DOCTOR! WTF?

"Senator Donna Campbell is a conservative who has spent a lifetime helping others through medicine and Christian ministry."

[TexasTowelie]

3. Additional info from lonestarq.com

Campbell introduced a nearly identical measure two years ago, but it died in committee. The 2013 measure was supported by the anti-LGBT group Texas Values and opposed by Equality Texas.

Texas already has a statute, the Religous Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), that provides strong protections for religious freedom. However, critics say Campbell’s proposal would go much further than the Texas RFRA.

For example, while the RFRA says government “may not substantially burden” an individual’s religious freedom, SJR10 states only that government “may not burden” an individual’s religious freedom. Removing the word “substantially” would significantly alter the scope of the law, as outlined in testimony from former state Rep. Scott Hochberg in 2013. Also, unlike the RFRA, Campbell’s proposal doesn’t include exceptions for enforcement of civil rights laws.

In a committee hearing two years ago, critics of Campbell’s proposal argued it could strengthen the right of Westboro Baptist Church to protest military funerals — or even, ironically, create a religious right to an abortion, according to a report from Texas Monthly. Campbell’s proposal could also effectively prevent cities from enforcing nondiscrimination ordinances if a business owner claimed “a sincerely held religious belief.”

More at http://www.lonestarq.com/proposal-could-enshrine-license-to-discriminate-in-texas-constitution/

[bullwinkle428]

4. Bringing back Jim Crow-style laws, one step at at time.

[bucolic_frolic]

5. These creatures are prehistoric

It really is the 1920s, isn't it?

[hoosierlib]

6. This garbage is also being pushed in Indiana...

Under the guise of a "religious protections" bill, it is the cornerstone of the Republican dominated legislature and championed by Gov Empty Suit (Pence) as he readies for 2016 Presidential run.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. I can't wait for this 'logic' to be everywhere. Then I can legally discriminate

against all Southern Baptists and anybody who's "been born again". Won't have to hire them, sell to them, allow them into my restaurants, or rent/sell them housing, life will be great!

My 'religion' is based on one shining principle: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

[workinclasszero]

8. First it starts with gay people

Later it will be black people, Latinos, people the store owner doesn't like the look of, on and on.

People never learn, do they?

[vkkv]

9. It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if -

- it acquires the political power to do so. -Robert A. Heinlein, science-fiction author (1907-1988)

[vkkv]

10. I'm still waiting for TX, MO, OK, KS, AZ

and the ENTIRE South to SECEDE so we northerners can get going on that BORDER FENCE ! !

Go now, PLEASE ! !