Trump didnt sign a religious liberties executive order, but states are filling the gap

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A supporter of same-sex marriage waves his rainbow flag in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., in this file photo from April 2015. (Astrid Riecken/The Washington Post)

By Sandhya Somashekhar
February 8

Lawmakers in several states are introducing bills aimed at allowing religious people and businesses to refuse to provide services that conflict with their faith — measures that rights groups say are thinly veiled efforts to legalize discrimination against gay and transgender people.

More than a dozen states have seen bills this year that seek to codify discrimination, from allowing adoption agencies to refuse placements with same-sex couples to allowing businesses to turn away customers based on their views of same-sex marriage or homosexuality. Such bills have been a staple of legislative sessions in conservative states since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015, but they have drawn renewed attention this year because of comments from President Trump suggesting that the nation’s religious liberties eroded considerably during Barack Obama’s presidency.

Last week, Trump declined to sign a sweeping executive order that would have given businesses and individuals of faith broad leeway to opt out of laws that conflict with their religion. Socially conservative groups remain hopeful — and rights groups remain fearful — that some form of that directive will eventually go into effect. In the meantime, states are poised to enact more modest versions within their own borders.

A committee of the Alabama House on Wednesday advanced the “Child Placing Agency Inclusion Act,” a bill that would give faith-based adoption and foster agencies the right to use their religion to guide their child-placement decisions. Religiously affiliated agencies in Alabama already have the right to discriminate in placements, and such agencies are responsible for about a third of the state’s foster and adoptive placements. But the bill serves as a preemptive strike in case of lawsuits or legislation that might curb that right, said Rep. Rich Wingo, a Republican from Tuscaloosa.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/02/08/trump-didnt-sign-a-religious-liberties-executive-order-but-states-are-filling-the-gap/?utm_term=.b7d9ac6f81b3