Tag: anti-LGBT

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Mississippi Governor Signs Anti-LGBT “Religious Freedoms” Bill

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant has signed into law the controversial and discriminatory HB 1523 which, in essence, legalizes discrimination against LGBTs in the state by purportedly protecting so-called “religious freedoms.”

From WREG Memphis:

The bill prevents state and local government agencies from taking action against state employees, individuals, organizations and private associations that deny service based on religious beliefs.

It does not prevent civil lawsuits based on claims of discrimination.

The measure’s intention is to protect those who believe that marriage should be between one man and one woman, that sexual relations should only take place inside such marriages, and that male and female genders are unchangeable.

Proponents say the legislation is an answer to states that have fined or taken business permits from companies that deny services such as event rentals and bakery services to same-sex couples.

Circuit clerks who do not want to give a wedding license to a same-sex couple could hand over those duties to a deputy clerk.

Opponents say the state is sanctioning discrimination.

After signing the bill, the governor tweeted this statement:

Immediately following the news, the ACLU issued this statement:

“This is a sad day for the state of Mississippi and for the thousands of Mississippians who can now be turned away from businesses, refused marriage licenses, or denied housing, essential services and needed care based on who they are. This bill flies in the face of the basic American principles of fairness, justice and equality and will not protect anyone’s religious liberty. Far from protecting anyone from ‘government discrimination’ as the bill claims, it is an attack on the citizens of our state, and it will serve as the Magnolia State’s badge of shame.”

UPDATE – The Democratic National Committee has issued this statement from DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz:

“It’s embarrassing, shameful, and truly perplexing that the Republicans still don’t get it. LGBT Americans are entitled to equal protection under the law, just as everyone else. No exceptions. No allowances for discrimination. That we’re even still debating this in 2016 boggles the mind.

“‘Right to Discriminate’ measures signed into law by Republican governors are proof that the Republican Party’s leaders are stuck in the dark ages when it comes to equality and that they’ve been on a divisive path toward destruction since long before Donald Trump ran for president. In fact, the Republican National Committee has passed resolutions calling on state legislatures to pass discriminatory ‘bathroom bills’ targeted at LGBT youth and calling on Congress to pass a national ‘Right to Discriminate’ law that they cynically call the First Amendment Defense Act.

“No American should be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. That’s not very complicated, and that’s not who we are as Americans. It’s long past time for the Republicans to get the message.”

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Atlanta Joins North Carolina Travel Ban Over HB 2

At last count, the cities and states with travel bans to North Carolina – over the anti-LGBT HB 2 legislation – include Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, New York City, New York state, Vermont, Connecticut, Minnesota, and Washington state.

You can now add Atlanta to the list:

Atlanta’s mayor has issued a travel ban to North Carolina. This comes after controversy over a nondiscrimination bill that some believe allows for discrimination.

Mayor Kasim Reed’s office issued the following statement Monday: “As a result of Governor Pat McCrory’s decision to sign discriminatory and unnecessary legislation into law, effective today I am directing all City departments to stop non-essential, publicly-funded employee travel to the State of North Carolina.

“I extend my support to Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts, who worked to enhance protections for the city’s LGBT population, as well as to the LGBT residents of North Carolina. Every person, regardless of their gender, gender expression or sexuality is a valued member of our community.”

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Mississippi: Anti-LGBT Law Heads To Governor’s Desk

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant

Mississippi’s anti-LGBT “Religious Objections” bill is on it’s way to the governor’s desk to be signed into law.

From WAPT News:

The Mississippi House on Friday passed a final version of a bill that allows government employees and private business people to cite religious beliefs to refuse licenses or other services for same-sex couples who want to marry. House Bill 1523 is now headed to Gov. Phil Bryant, who is expected to sign it into law.

The bill also says the state cannot punish businesses that refuse to sell goods or services to same-sex couples or religious groups that refuse to let gay or lesbian people be foster or adoptive parents.

The ACLU of Mississippi is against the bill.

“This bill allows freedom of religion to cover prejudice and to justify discrimination. Freedom of religion is one of our most fundamental rights as Americans, but that freedom does not give any of us the right to harm or mistreat others,” the ALCU said earlier this week in a written statement.

The law makes LGBT Mississippians second-class citizens who will now be open to discriminatory business practices.

County clerks can refuse to issue marriage licenses. Religious organizations, upon learning an employee is gay, will be able to legally fire the employee.

Anyone will be able to claim a “sincerely held religious belief,” and then throw gays, lesbians and transgenders out of their business.

Shameful.

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Virginia Governor Vetoes Anti-LGBT Legislation

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has vetoed recent legislation that would have legalized anti-LGBT discrimination.

From The Washington Blade:

McAuliffe said in a statement that Senate Bill 41 is “nothing more than an attempt to stigmatize.”

“This legislation is also bad for business and creates roadblocks as we try to build the new Virginia economy,” he said. “Businesses and job creators do not want to locate or do business in states that appear more concerned with demonizing people than with creating a strong business climate.”

“Legislation that immunizes the discriminatory actions of certain people and institutions at the expense of same-sex couples would damage Virginia’s reputation for commonsense, pro-business government,” added McAuliffe. “We need only look at the damage these types of laws are doing in other states to understand the harm this bill could bring to our Commonwealth and its economy.”

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North Carolina Attorney General Won’t Defend Anti-LGBT H.B. 2

NC Attorney General Roy Cooper
Photo credit: U.S. Air Force Photo by Airman 1st Class Mindy Bloem

From The Washington Blade:

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper announced on Tuesday he won’t defend in court the recently enacted measure in his state that’s considered the worst anti-LGBT law in the nation.

Cooper, a Democrat who’s running to become the state’s governor, declared he won’t defend House Bill 2 in court at an 11 am news conference at his office in Raleigh.

“Over the last 15 years, our office has defended the state, its officials and agencies when they’ve been sued,” Cooper said. “Our office will continue to do that, except it will not defend the constitutionality of the discrimination in House Bill 2.”

House Bill 2, signed into law last week by Gov. Pat McCrory after an emergency session of the state legislature, undos all pro-LGBT city ordinances in North Carolina, including the recently approved measure in Charlotte, and prohibits transgender people from using public restrooms consistent with their gender identity in schools and government buildings.

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North Carolina: Lawsuit Filed Challenging Anti-LGBT Law H.B. 2

As predicted, a federal lawsuit has been filed in North Carolina regarding the state’s new sweeping anti-LGBT law, H.B. 2, which wiped out local municipalities ability to protect LGBT citizens from discrimination, and specifies that transgender students must use public bathrooms that correspond to their “biological” sex versus their gender identity.

Calling out the Fourteenth Amendment, the lawsuit alleges the legislation was enacted to single out LGBTs.

From Buzzfeed:

“By singling out LGBT people for disfavored treatment and explicitly writing discrimination against transgender people into state law, H.B. 2 violates the most basic guarantees of equal treatment and the U.S. Constitution,” the lawsuit argues.

The complaint argues the law violates people’s equal protection, privacy, and liberty rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and their civil rights under Title IX of the Education Act of 1972.

The lawsuit is asking for a declaratory judgment that the law violates the Constitution and Title IX and an injunction against enforcement of the law.

The case was filed overnight in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina on behalf of Joaquín Carcaño, a transgender man who works at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Payton Grey McGarry, a transgender man who is a student at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro; and Angela Gilmore, a lesbian who is the associate dean for academic affairs at North Carolina Central University. Also named as plaintiffs are the ACLU of North Carolina and Equality North Carolina.

The defendants include Gov. Pat McCrory, Attorney General Roy Cooper, and the University of North Carolina and several of its senior officials.

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Georgia: Gov. Nathan Deal Will Veto Anti-LGBT Legislation HB 757

Gov. Nathan Deal of Georgia held a press conference this morning to announce he will veto the so-called “religious liberty” bill HB 757.

The anti-LGBT legislation would have allowed faith-based organizations to deny services, educational, chariable, social or otherwise to people who, in the view of the organiztion, violate the organization’s “sincerely held religious belief.

The legislation also allowed these organizations to fire employees whose “religious beliefs or practices or lack of either are not in accord with the faith-based organization’s sincerely held religious belief.”

Major organizations that spoke out against the legislation include Apple, the Atlanta Braves, the Atlanta Falcons, the Atlanta Hawks, Dell, Disney, the Dow Chemical Company, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, Hilton, Intel, Intercontinental Hotels, Live Nation Entertainment, Marriott, Marvel, MailChimp, the Metro Atlanta Chamber, Microsoft, the NFL, Paypal, Salesforce, Square, Time Warner, Turner, Twitter, Tyler Perry Studios, Unilever, The Weinstein Company, Virgin, and Yelp.

And more – AMC, Viacom, Starz, 21st Century Fox, Lionsgate, Netflix, CBS, Sony, Comcast, and MGM. The list of corporations concerned about losing business over hateful legislation was very long indeed.

Factoring into Deal’s decision to veto had to be the news that Chris Riley, chief of staff for the governor, emailed this to Spiro Amburn, top aide to House Speaker David Ralston:

“We received official notification this morning that Georgia was dropped from contention from two pending economic projects we had been working at gdec prior to any decision being made on the bill,” Riley wrote, referring to the Georgia Department of Economic Development. “Both projects cited Hb 757 as why they were removing Georgia from consideration.”

The bill was bad. As we’ve seen across the country, these bills do more to divide Americans than bring us together.

Good for Gov. Deal and good for Georgia.

#Forward.

Update – LGBT organizations respond:

Lambda Legal:

Today we feel very fortunate that LGBT people and people with living with HIV were spared the terrible consequences of HB 757. We applaud today’s veto by Governor Deal and thank him for his willingness to listen to the voices explaining the damage this bill could have caused.

In the end, Governor Deal did not allow hate and fear-mongering to dictate state policy; instead he chose to act reasonably and with compassion and demonstrated that equality is a Georgia value. He listened to the business community, hundreds of ministers, and tens of thousands of Georgians who opposed the bill. Freedom of religion does not give any of us permission to discriminate against others.

HB 757 would have allowed anyone to use religion to treat LGBT people, and others, unfairly and to ignore anti-discrimination policies. As is always the case when discriminatory laws target LGBT people and people living with HIV Lambda Legal is poised to defend the rights of our community.

Human Rights Campaign:

“Our message to Governor Nathan Deal was loud and clear: this deplorable legislation was bad for his constituents, bad for business, and bad for Georgia’s future,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “Today, Governor Deal heard the voices of Georgians, civil rights organizations, as well as the many leaders in the entertainment industry and private sector who condemned this attack on the fundamental rights of LGBT people, and he has set an example for other elected officials to follow. Discrimination and intolerance have no place in the United States of America, and we hope North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory and the North Carolina General Assembly are paying close attention to what has transpired in Georgia. They must undo their disgraceful attack on LGBT people in the state’s upcoming legislative session.”

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North Carolina’s Anti-LGBT Law, HB 2, Will Get Court Challenge Filed Tomorrow

The Hill has the details:

The American Civil Liberties Union will announce Monday it is filing a federal lawsuit in response to a controversial North Carolina law that opponents say is discriminatory to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

The law, passed by the state’s General Assembly and signed by Gov. Pat McCrory Wednesday, prohibits people from using bathrooms that don’t match their biological sex and also bans municipalities from creating their own antidiscrimination policies.

The ACLU will file the lawsuit in conjunction with Lambda Legal, a national gay rights legal organization, and Equality North Carolina, another gay rights group.

“We are disappointed that Governor McCrory did not do right by North Carolina’s families, communities, and businesses by vetoing this horribly discriminatory bill, but this will not be the last word,” said Chris Brook, legal director of the ACLU of North Carolina in a statement. “The ACLU, Lambda Legal, and Equality NC are reviewing all options, including litigation.”

“HB 2 is an undisguised attack on LGBT people and the efforts of one city to protect gay and transgender North Carolinians against discrimination,” said Chris Sgro, executive director of Equality NC in a statement.

The law has been widely condemned by other politicians, media outlets, gay rights advocates and businesses around the country.

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North Carolina Gov. McCrory Tries To Spin “Myths Vs Facts” On Anti-LGBT Law

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory is trying desperately to crawl out of this huge mess of the newly passed HB2 law which strips any LGBT protections from local municipalities and forces transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms which don’t correspond to their gender identity.

McCrory has issued this list of “Myths Vs Facts” about HB2, but there’s a whole lot of side-stepping going on here:

Now, let’s breakdown the “spin” from the truth here:

• McCrory completely sidesteps the fact that transgender students cannot use restrooms or locker rooms that match their gender identity.

• Saying businesses can still adopt their own non-discrimination policies ignores the fact that those businesses were never the problem. It’s the businesses that DO discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity that needed to be policed.

• Saying transgender people can use the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity as long as they’ve undergone sex reassignment surgery and change their birth certificates is highly unreasonable. Many trans people haven’t undergone such surgery, and often because they can’t afford to do so.

• Item #5 would seem to indicate that local municipalities can enact their own stricter anti-discrimination policies. EXCEPT – there can be no such policies regarding any group not protected by state law. LGBTs are not protected by state law, so there can be no local protections either.

What HB2 has done is wipe out the local ordinances passed in 8 cities in North Carolina that chose to protect it’s LGBT citizens just like over 200 cities and 19 states across the country had done.

The state legislature of North Carolina has legalized discrimination against LGBTs. Period.

As I’ve explained before here on The Randy Report, here’s an example of how this new law will work. This transgender man will now be required to use the ladies room.  Let me know how this makes any sense…

(h/t JMG)

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North Carolina: Big Business Speaks Out Against Hateful HB 2