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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrumps religious liberty executive order is meant to legalize anti-LGBT discrimination
and may be unconstitutional
The scare quotes around religious liberty are deliberate. If this executive order is anything like the one leaked to The Nation in February, then it has nothing to do with religious liberty, as the term is commonly understood. In fact, the leaked executive order seems to violate the First Amendment, in that it privileges one set of religious beliefs those of fundamentalist Christians over all others.
The original draft of the executive order covered any organization, including closely held for-profit corporations or any individuals when providing social services, education, or healthcare; earning a living, seeking a job, or employing others; receiving government grants or contracts; or otherwise participating in the marketplace, the public square, or interfacing with Federal, State or local governments.
This broad category of people would be allowed to discriminate, under the guise of religion, against LGBT people or women who want or have used reproductive health services, such as abortion or some forms of contraception. Sarah Posner of The Nation explained:
Language in the draft document specifically protects the tax-exempt status of any organization that believes, speaks, or acts (or declines to act) in accordance with the belief that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, sexual relations are properly reserved for such a marriage, male and female and their equivalents refer to an individuals immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy, physiology, or genetics at or before birth, and that human life begins at conception and merits protection at all stages of life.
http://www.salon.com/2017/05/04/trumps-religious-liberty-executive-order-is-meant-to-legalize-anti-lgbt-discrimination-and-may-be-unconstitutional/
NunnesBuznat
(47 posts)So I can discriminate against the 99.99% percent of people (republicans and democrats) that weren't virgins when they got married?
Initech
(100,129 posts)They are extremely horrible people in every way, shape and form, and they're the reason why we can't have nice things. They deserve Donald Trump. Donald Trump is them. They are Donald Trump. But one thing they are not is Christian. If they are, then their god is a fucking asshole, just like they are. I want no part of a religion where they support harassment and discrimination. I can guarantee Jesus wouldn't pass such bullshit legislation like this. And they don't care either. They do it under the guise that they know it will piss us off, even as grossly unconstitutional as these "religious freedom" bills are. I'd like to tell them where they can stick their "religious freedom".
KG
(28,753 posts)and then are shocked at their decline in numbers...
Vinca
(50,323 posts)Did he sign one of his giant menus???
MineralMan
(146,345 posts)I can't see how it would survive a challenge in any Federal court. It's clearly unconstitutional.
Jno_Gilmor_
(127 posts)I can't wait to see all the orange tears when the whinner-in-chief sees his precious bigot bill shot down in flames by the mean old judges.