Religious liberty or discrimination?

The tension between religious freedom and the law is palpable, and in the past years this tension has only become more apparent. The line between religious freedom and discriminatory actions is often not well defined, due to this unsettled issue we often see cases that beg the question, is the exclusion of certain groups on the basis of religious beliefs ethical?

Since the Supreme Court ruled that gay marriage would be legal in all 50 States, legislators across the country have been proposing bills that would make it so business owners, and some public employees have the ability to refuse services to people, based on their sexual preference, by saying that it goes against their religious beliefs. Bills like Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and now in Georgia, Senate Bill 129 has gained much attention for doing just this. This bill would allow for business owners to refuse services to homosexual people, on the basis that it goes against their religious beliefs.  

Josh Mckoon (R-Columbus)

This is the second time Senate Bill 129 will be put to vote. The first time was in mid 2015, the Bill went through the Georgia State Senate, and passed without a hitch, the bill was stopped in the House Judiciary Committee, however, for not having an anti-discriminatory clause. The creator of the Bill, Senator Josh Mckoon (R-Columbus) states that that if an anti-discriminatory clause were to be added the essence of the bill would be gutted. Without this anti-discriminatory clause, support for this bill went from a large bipartisan support to having only 27% of the state senate’s support, made up almost exclusively of republicans. Gay rights groups are not the only groups contesting the passage of this bill. Senate Bill 129 is one of many bill the members of the Georgia state legislature are trying to add to ‘help combat the war against religious liberty’. Nevertheless Mckoon denies all assertions that the bill has an anti-gay agenda.

Major corporations, such as Google, Coca-Cola, and Delta Airlines are in fierce opposition of this Bill, citing the harm it did to the Indiana state economy after they passed a very similar Bill in 2015. According to a study, if Georgia was to pass this bill without an anti-discriminatory clause they are looking at national outrage, leading to an annual 4% loss in investment throughout the state, affecting the states economy exorbitantly.

            In terms of discrimination, this Bill could be detrimental to the status of gay and lesbian people living in Georgia. In 21 states, there are laws in place to protect people from discrimination based on sexual preference, however Georgia is not one of them. Without laws like this, Senate Bill 129 will lead to gays and lesbians being treated by the states government as second-class citizens. The language of this bill is far to flexible not to have an anti-discriminatory clause, without it I believe this bill to be unconstitutional because it unfairly disadvantages a certain group.

            Erick Erickson a radio host, and a very vocal supporter of Senate Bill 129 claimed; “absolute majority of American support religious exceptions relating to providing goods and services to gay marriage.” What Mr. Erickson, as well as other supporters of this bill forget, is that the law is there to protect minorities, not the majority. Supporters of this Bill also argue that it has no anti-gay agenda, however no activist groups have spoken positively about the Bill.

The bothersome aspect of this Bill is its stance on what you can and cannot discriminate against. Like race and gender, sexual preference is something you cannot decide. I think James Esseks, the American Civil Liberties Union’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender & HIV Project director says it best; “Religious freedom is critical to America’s core identity, but we know religious freedom doesn’t give anyone the right to harm other people. That’s discrimination, not religious freedom.”

Thankfully the chance this bill passes through Senate is little to none without legislators adding an anti-discriminatory clause, which the authors of this Bill seem firmly against. This Bill does bring a lot of unresolved issues to the forefront, should religious beliefs allow you to discriminate on the basis of sexual preference? This debate is on going, and Senator Mckoon’s bill is not alone on trying to create more protections for religious groups to combat the Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage, religious liberty is a cornerstone of American politics, however we must ensure that by supporting one group we are not putting another at a disadvantage.