April 28, 2013 by David K. Sutton
Washington State Republicans Want To Legalize LGBT Discrimination
To be clear, discrimination against gays, lesbians and other members of the LGBT community is already legal, as in, there are no laws prohibiting this form of bigotry. But Republican lawmakers in Washington state would like to take it a step further. They want a law on the books that explicitly allows prejudice and intolerance against LGBT people.
The Raw Story — Earlier this year, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a lawsuit against a florist who said that she could not supply flowers for a gay couple’s wedding “because of my relationship with Jesus Christ.”
In response, state Sen. Sharon Brown (R) and 11 other of the 23 Republicans in the Washington state Senate want to legalize discrimination against gay and lesbian couples with Senate Bill 5927. The measure goes far beyond religious exceptions, allowing business to discriminate based on “philosophical beliefs” or even “matters of conscience.”
Oh sure, the wording of the law does not spell it out, instead it states, “The right to act or refuse to act in a manner motivated by a sincerely held religious belief, philosophical belief, or matter of conscience may not be burdened unless the government proves that it has a compelling governmental interest in infringing the specific act or refusal to act and has used the least restrictive means to further that interest.”
But here’s the problem people.
You don’t get to hide behind religious dogma. If your “sincerely held religious belief” means discriminating against a minority group, you are a bigot. Religion, faith, personal beliefs do not give you a pass. You are an intolerant and prejudiced person, and we don’t need to make laws that protect your segregationist beliefs. I don’t care if we are talking about patronage of a private business, we already have laws protecting race, religion, and the disabled from this kind of discrimination. Any argument for continued lawful bigotry towards gays and lesbians is a losing argument.
