Religious Freedom and homosexuality: Battles Won & Lost
The SB-100 Bill
By Nate Richardson
Updated 1-27-18
RichardsonStudies.com
rrnmailbox@gmail.com
The SB-100 Bill I spoke of earlier asking people to help that bill not get passed because it adds gender identity to the list of protected rights; scientists classify every other creature as either male or female but now we don’t with humans. This would make it so gender private facilities would be a thing of the past.
I understand if some people DON’T want gender private facilities, let them have them; but for those who DO want gender private facilities because of religious values or otherwise, let them have those also please.
Faulting on this issue could lead to issues like the following we’ve recently seen:
-a California Dr. being sued for refusing to perform artificial insemination on a lesbian based on his religious convictions (let her go to another Dr. of her choice who would be fine with performing such).
-a New York couple who uses their home as a wedding chapel and reception center which was fined 13,000$ for refusing to allow a gay couple wedding ceremony
-Atlanta Fire Chief Kevin Cochran who was fired because he wrote a religious book for his bible study group that said homosexuality was wrong
-A 6 year old Colorado boy permitted to use the girls bathroom at his elementary school after his parents sued the school asserting that he suffers from gender identity disorder
-Being forced to rent my basement to a homosexual couple
-Girl who complained about harassment because they had to share the girls bathrooms and showers with a transgender boy was threatened with removal from the sports teams with hate crimes charges; she was told if she didn’t want to share facilities with a boy she could merely refrain from using the facilities
-Several Houston pastors received subpoenas demanding that they turn over the text of all of their sermons dealing with homosexuality, gender identity or the city’s lesbian mayor.
-I hope to express love for the gay community and everyone else throughout this discussion as we try to find the balance for equal rights for everyone- allowing the gays opportunity to do what they want while allowing people to live their religion.
-The voice from the LDS Church is saying that the religious rights to teach etc. as they choose need to be respected just as much as the rights to the gay community to things in areas of housing employment and transportation.
-in the LDS message I posted about the conference recently held about this, Elder Oaks said that “those who seek the protection of religious conscience and expression and for the free exercise of their religion look with alarm at the steady erosion of treasured freedoms that are guaranteed in the United States Constitution.”
-Elder Oaks also said in that conference “Since 1791 the guarantees of religious freedom embodied in the First Amendment have assured all citizens that they may hold whatever religious views they want, and that they are free to express and act on those beliefs so long as such actions do not endanger public health or safety. This is one of America’s most cherished and defining freedoms. Yet today we see new examples of attacks on religious freedom with increasing frequency.”
Elder Oaks shared several of those examples. The university system in California, he said, is forcing some groups to compromise their religious conscience if they want recognition for their clubs. And in one of America’s largest cities, lawyers acting for the city government subpoenaed the sermons and notes of pastors who opposed parts of a new antidiscrimination law on religious grounds. Recently, he noted, the head of a large American corporation was forced to resign from his position in a well-publicized backlash to his personal beliefs.
“When religious people are publicly intimidated, retaliated against, forced from employment or made to suffer personal loss because they have raised their voice in the public square, donated to a cause or participated in an election, our democracy is the loser,” Elder Oaks said. “Such tactics are every bit as wrong as denying access to employment, housing or public services because of race or gender.”
-to read more of the LDS Conference on this see http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/church-news-conference-on-religious-freedom-and-nondiscrimination
