Phil Bryant the Mississippi Governor, signed a law bill into a law, called the Religious Objection Law, that allows businesses to refuse to service gay couples, based on religious beliefs and moral convictions.
This law is supposed to protect business owners and employees, more specifically their morals and beliefs, and it gives them the opportunity to practice their religious beliefs and freedom.
“In the wake of last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision, many Mississippians, including pastors, wanted protection to exercise their religious liberties. This bill simply protects those individuals from government interference when practicing their religious beliefs,” said Tate Reeves, Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi, after the Supreme Court ruled last year that gay couples have a right to marriage.
Some businesses are opposing to this new law because they are worried that it is going to make them lose economic opportunities in the future. These people are asking the governor to veto the bill since they think of it as discrimination against gay people.
On the other hand, it has been said that the bill only helps and protects people with religious beliefs who do not feel comfortable with gay people around and, therefore, are not able to offer service to them.
Sad day for #Mississippi and for the thousands of citizens who can now be turned away based on who they are. #HB1523https://t.co/LBOcolqpcj
— ACLU of Mississippi (@ACLU_MS) April 5, 2016
The specific beliefs this law is protecting are that marriage should be between a man and a woman and that gender is determined by people’s genes and anatomy.
This law is the first one to prohibit the state government from taking actions on people, business, employees and religious organizations that decide not to let gay people into their stores or other places. It is giving business owners, for example, the ability to control who access bathrooms and such.
Mississippi Lawyers, Legal Scholars Respond to HB1523
After the Law was passed and protesters were all over the place, engaging in a pacific demonstration to fight for the rights of LGBT people, Mississippi Lawyers, and Legal Scholars Respond to HB1523 published a memo saying that the Religious Objection Law violates the first amendment. The memo can be found here.
Source: The Washington Post
Yeah, this is just great. Gay taxpayers in Mississippi can help pay the salaries of the same public officials who can turn them away if they apply for a marriage license, just because Gay couples getting married offends their delicate sensibilities.
And since when is a business a church? It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about a bakery or a restaurant, a photo studio or a factory. They aren’t in the business of providing spiritual guidance or enforcing moral doctrines. They are there to turn a profit. As such, they are obligated to abide by prevailing civil rights laws, whether those laws protect people from discrimination based on race, religion, or sexual orientation. You can decide which goods and services to provide, but you don’t get to turn down certain paying customers just because you have theological disagreements with them. Doing so would be coercing your customers into abiding by your personal religious doctrines, and that’s not what “religious freedom” is about.