Lawmaker Files Religious Liberty Bill Against ‘Same-Sex Marriage Or Homosexual Behavior’

A Virginia state lawmaker has filed a religious liberty bill that is so broad some say it may be life-threatening.

The names of state lawmakers are rarely important to the average person, especially when that lawmaker isn’t even theirs. But the name Bob Marshall might right a bell. 

Delegate Bob Marshall wrote the 2006 bill that became Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage. It was struck down as unconstitutional last year.

In 2012, Del. Marshall blocked the judicial nomination of a veteran who is gay, because, Marshall claimed, “sodomy is not a civil right.”

That same year, he made the totally false claim at a Tea Party rally that being gay “cuts your life by about 20 years.”

Del. Marshall has tried to ban gay people from serving in the National Guard, and falsely claimed that the Fed’s flying of the LGBT pride flag is a felony. He took that opportunity to claim, again, falsely, that homosexuality “adds significantly to illness, increases health costs, promotes venereal diseases, and worsens the population imbalance relating to the number of workers supporting the beneficiaries of America’s Social Security and Medicare programs.”

Now, Marshall, who is 70 and a Roman Catholic, is fighting for the right’s latest craze: the use of the First Amendment as a shield to discriminate against gay people, and claiming religious preference to do so.

HB 1414 states that “a person shall not be required to perform, assist, consent to, or participate in any action or refrain from performing, assisting, consenting to, or participating in any action as a condition of obtaining or renewing a government-issued license, registration, or certificate where such condition would violate the religious or moral convictions of such person with respect to same-sex marriage or homosexual behavior.”

That may be a lot to swallow, but here’s how ACLU Executive Director Claire Guthrie Gastañaga interprets it.

“It’s licensing [discrimination], authorizing it, and saying it’s okay.”

She adds that Del. Marshall’s bill would give “every individual, business, professional who gets any kind of license, registration, or certificate from the state, the locality, or any other agency or authority, board or department which would include every college and university” a license to discriminate, according to a report at LGBTQ Nation.

Greg Nevins, Lambda Legal Counsel who fought Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage last year, said the bill is so broadly written that it would allow a doctor to refuse to prescribe HIV medication to a gay man, or a therapist to refuse counseling to an individual in a same-sex relationship.

“This legislation threatens the mental and physical health of Virginia residents, is horrible policy, and is unconstitutional.” said Nevins.

He called the bill “unethical, abusive and dangerous.”

This is but one of many “religious liberty” bills, part of the religious right’s claim to want to strengthen “religious freedom,” when in reality the mission is to provide Christians with a license to discriminate. 

States like Arizona, Michigan, and Kansas have tried to pass laws called Religious Freedom Restoration Acts (RFRA), never actually proving that religious freedom has declined and needs to be “restored.” About 19 states have these laws, and many more can be expected this year, as many states are controlled by Republican legislators and even Republican governors.

 

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr