Senators introduce resolution to kill D.C. LGBT rights measure
U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.) introduced a resolution in the Senate on Wednesday calling on Congress to kill the Human Rights Amendment Act of 2014, a city approved bill that would protect LGBT students from discrimination at D.C. based religious schools.
The two senators introduced a separate resolution on Wednesday calling for killing another bill passed by the D.C. Council and signed by Mayor Muriel Bowser, the Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Amendment Act.
That measure would prohibit D.C. employers from discriminating against employees based on their personal reproductive health decisions, including a decision to have an abortion. City officials dispute claims by opponents that the bill could force employers, including religious organizations, to pay for employee abortions through health insurance plans.
“The D.C. Council is attempting to force religious institutions to provide services, make employment decisions, or participate in activities that directly violate their faith,” Cruz said in a statement, referring to both bills.
In his own statement, Lankford said the two bills represent a “major threat to the fundamental right to religious freedom for D.C. residents and organizations, and a brazen display of intolerance.”
In their respective statements announcing their introduction of the disapproval resolutions neither Cruz nor Lankford mentioned that the Human Rights Amendment Act was an LGBT related bill. They referred to it only as a measure that could force religious schools to support activities that “violate the tenets of their faith.”
But Cruz and Lankford’s resolutions came after several prominent conservative religious organizations, including the anti-gay Family Research Council, launched a lobbying campaign calling on Congress to kill the two bills. Those groups specifically mentioned that the Human Rights Amendment Act was a homosexual rights measure that threatened religious schools.
Meanwhile, a coalition of 58 LGBT advocacy, civil liberties, and reproductive rights groups, anticipating attempts by members of Congress to block to the two bills, issued a joint statement on Tuesday urging Congress not to kill the two bills and disputing claims that the bills would in any way infringe upon religious rights or freedom.
“Unsurprisingly, opponents of these bills have unfairly mischaracterized them as ‘unprecedented assaults’ on religious liberty,” the statement says. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
The statement adds, “Religious liberty is a fundamental American value. It guarantees us the freedom to hold any belief we choose and the right to act on our religious beliefs, but it does not allow us to discriminate against or otherwise harm others.”
The Human Rights Amendment Act calls for repealing a 1989 law passed by Congress known as the Armstrong Amendment. The amendment exempts religious educational institutions in the city from having to comply with the D.C. Human Rights Act’s provision banning discrimination based on sexual orientation.
The amendment was authored by former Sen. William Armstrong (D-Colo.). To the dismay of LGBT activists, it inserted language in the city’s Human Rights Act allowing religious schools such as Catholic University to deny meeting space or privileges offered to other student clubs for a student organization that engages in “promoting, encouraging, or condoning any homosexual act, lifestyle, orientation, or belief.”
The bill approved by the D.C. Council and signed by Bowser would repeal that clause in the Human Rights Act, restoring the act to its earlier version that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation.
More at source, The Washington Blade
The two senators introduced a separate resolution on Wednesday calling for killing another bill passed by the D.C. Council and signed by Mayor Muriel Bowser, the Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Amendment Act.
That measure would prohibit D.C. employers from discriminating against employees based on their personal reproductive health decisions, including a decision to have an abortion. City officials dispute claims by opponents that the bill could force employers, including religious organizations, to pay for employee abortions through health insurance plans.
“The D.C. Council is attempting to force religious institutions to provide services, make employment decisions, or participate in activities that directly violate their faith,” Cruz said in a statement, referring to both bills.
In his own statement, Lankford said the two bills represent a “major threat to the fundamental right to religious freedom for D.C. residents and organizations, and a brazen display of intolerance.”
In their respective statements announcing their introduction of the disapproval resolutions neither Cruz nor Lankford mentioned that the Human Rights Amendment Act was an LGBT related bill. They referred to it only as a measure that could force religious schools to support activities that “violate the tenets of their faith.”
But Cruz and Lankford’s resolutions came after several prominent conservative religious organizations, including the anti-gay Family Research Council, launched a lobbying campaign calling on Congress to kill the two bills. Those groups specifically mentioned that the Human Rights Amendment Act was a homosexual rights measure that threatened religious schools.
Meanwhile, a coalition of 58 LGBT advocacy, civil liberties, and reproductive rights groups, anticipating attempts by members of Congress to block to the two bills, issued a joint statement on Tuesday urging Congress not to kill the two bills and disputing claims that the bills would in any way infringe upon religious rights or freedom.
“Unsurprisingly, opponents of these bills have unfairly mischaracterized them as ‘unprecedented assaults’ on religious liberty,” the statement says. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
The statement adds, “Religious liberty is a fundamental American value. It guarantees us the freedom to hold any belief we choose and the right to act on our religious beliefs, but it does not allow us to discriminate against or otherwise harm others.”
The Human Rights Amendment Act calls for repealing a 1989 law passed by Congress known as the Armstrong Amendment. The amendment exempts religious educational institutions in the city from having to comply with the D.C. Human Rights Act’s provision banning discrimination based on sexual orientation.
The amendment was authored by former Sen. William Armstrong (D-Colo.). To the dismay of LGBT activists, it inserted language in the city’s Human Rights Act allowing religious schools such as Catholic University to deny meeting space or privileges offered to other student clubs for a student organization that engages in “promoting, encouraging, or condoning any homosexual act, lifestyle, orientation, or belief.”
The bill approved by the D.C. Council and signed by Bowser would repeal that clause in the Human Rights Act, restoring the act to its earlier version that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation.
More at source, The Washington Blade