Texas GOP Attorney General, Lt. Governor Push For Indiana-Style Religious Freedom Bills

Proposals would ban local LGBT protections, safeguard ‘ex-gay’ therapy

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton have launched a fresh assault on LGBT rights, calling on state legislators to revive Indiana-style religious freedom legislation that was defeated in this year’s session. 

The proposals from Patrick (photo, left) and Paxton, both Tea Partiers, would nullify local nondiscrimination ordinances protecting LGBT people, give state-funded adoption agencies a license to discriminate against same-sex couples, ensure that the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges doesn’t “needlessly trample the religious liberties of State and local government employees,” and preserve the right of mental health professionals to provide so-called “ex-gay” therapy.  

More than 20 similar anti-LGBT proposals died in this year’s session, largely due to opposition from the state’s chamber of commerce. But Patrick and Paxton are calling on legislative committees to study the proposals in the interim before the next Legislature convenes in January 2017.

“Examine measures to affirm 1st Amendment religious liberty protections in Texas, along with the relationship between local ordinances and state and federal law,” Patrick wrote atop a to-do list of 21 items for the Senate. “Make recommendations to ensure that the government does not force individuals, organizations or businesses to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs.” 

Meanwhile, Paxton penned a letter to Patrick in which the attorney general went into more detail about anti-LGBT legislation, laying out goals including:  

• Faith-based adoption and foster care agencies should be free from discrimination based on their religious beliefs, as has occurred in other jurisdictions. 

• Religious beliefs when requiring counseling should be protected. 

• Small businesses and closely held corporations should not be required to provide goods or services for weddings that violate their sincerely held religious beliefs.

Patrick’s to-do list prompted Equality Texas to issue an action alert, noting that the lieutenant governor is from Houston, where an Equal Rights Ordinance will appear on the ballot Nov. 3. A recent poll showed a majority of Houstonians back the ordinance, which is similar to laws protecting LGBT people against discrimination that are already on the books in Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth and San Antonio.  

“Equality for gay and transgender Texans is under attack!” Executive Director Chuck Smith wrote. “Notwithstanding the defeat of more than 20 anti-LGBT bills in the last legislative session and June’s historic Supreme Court ruling affirming the freedom to marry, Lt. Gov. Patrick is still instructing lawmakers to look for ways to allow discrimination against gay and transgender Texas.” 

Kathy Miller, president of the pro-LGBT Texas Freedom Network, also responded to the proposals. 

“Freedom of religion does not give people a license to discriminate or to exempt themselves from laws that protect everyone,” Miller told The Austin Statesman.  

 

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