Mississippi GOP lawmakers have been playing cat and mouse with the language of a so-called “religious freedom” bill that opponents believe will provide a “license to discriminate” — primarily against LGBT people. Just two weeks ago, the bill was sent back to committee and believed to be all but dead.
But SB 2681, the “Religious Freedom Restoration Act,†was revised and updated last night. It could be voted on today. Similar bills have been cropping up around the country, including one in Arizona, which was vetoed.
Opponents in Mississippi are especially concerned about the new language in SB 2681, including this passage:
“Laws ‘neutral’ toward religion may burden religious exercise as surely as laws intended to interfere with religious exercise.”
They believe the bill, if passed and signed into law, would allow any person to discriminate against any other person by claiming their religion demands it. There is no requirement to prove the need for religious discrimination in the bill.
The bill could allow a pharmacist to refuse to sell contraception to a particular person, and could allow a child to tell a fellow student perceived as being gay they are going to hell — and cite the law as their right to continuously bully and harass them. The bill could also be used by a corporation to refuse to pay for certain medical procedures via its health insurance program, like abortion or birth control, as in the Hobby Lobby case currently before the Supreme Court.
“From its inception,” Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, executive director of the Campaign for Southern Equality told The New Civil Rights Movement today by telephone, the goal of the bill has been “to create a license to discriminate under the guise of protecting religious freedom.”
Rev. Beach-Ferrara says she is concerned the legislation will be used against any individual who is or misperceived to be LGBT, to deny them service at, for example, a restaurant or a hotel.
She is also concerned about the “broader context of what life is like for LGBT people in Mississippi right now” and how the bill “contributes to the social climate and stigma LGBT people experience.”
LGBT people in the Magnolia State, Rev. Beach-Ferrara says, “live with the daily insecurity of being second class citizens.” And while she believes in religious freedom, the bill would interrupt that freedom, “in the context of our public shared lives together.”
Three Mississippi municipalities, Starkville, Hattiesburg and Oxford, have passed non-binding anti-discrimination ordinances. The legislation would have the effect of nullifying them.
In a press statement, Rev. Beach-Ferrara says that in her role as “a minister, it’s clear that this extreme bill is about legalizing discrimination, not protecting religious freedom. Furthermore the broad implications of this bill could result in discrimination aimed toward many communities.”
Lawmakers are now in a last-minute push to pass the bill before the weekend. The legislative session ends Friday.
Image by Justin Dornbusch via Twitter
Previously:
Victory! Mississippi Legislature Sends ‘Religious Freedom’ Bill Back To Committee
Mississippi Born Lance Bass And Fiancé Join Push For Freedom To Marry In Southern States
Mississippi Scrubs Its ‘Religious Freedom Restoration ‘ Bill After Arizona Backlash\
The Daily Show: Alabama And Mississippi Are ‘The Two Gayest States In The Union’