labyrinth-without-edge:

gaywrites:

The House in Kansas yesterday voted 89-27 to pass a bill that allows people to “opt out” of the antidiscrimination laws that protect LGBT people by claiming these laws “violate their religious freedom.” It will now move to the Senate.

Essentially, a business, employer or the like could claim homosexuality was against their religion and therefore fire a gay employee or kick a gay renter out of a house based on their own beliefs. And this would be legal.

The idea for the bill, called the “Kansas Preservation of Religious Freedom Act,” came in reaction to the college town of Lawrence passing an anti-discrimination ordinance that included sexual orientation. The new state law would nullify that and any other local anti-discrimination ordinance that included sexual orientation by granting citizens the right to opt out if they felt it conflicted with their religious beliefs.

“I don’t think an ordinance should trump other people’s religious rights,” said Rep. Jan Pauls, a Democrat on the Judiciary Committee that heard testimony about the bill. During a forum earlier this year, Pauls gave an example to explain why she backs the bill, saying an employer should be allowed to fire a “cross dresser.”

Oh, this is scary. Why is it so difficult to understand that discrimination is never OK?

I suppose employers will also have the right to fire non-white employees because their very existence is “against their religion?” Should we disregard all civil rights moments because the majority doesn’t approve of the minority?

I feel like America is going backwards. 

This bill has now been renamed the “Legally Discriminate Law.” Apparently it is legal to opt out of laws in order to discriminate.