newsinfo.inquirer.net
CHICAGO, United States — Gay rights groups and child welfare advocates raised alarm Monday over what they see as legislative attempts in nearly two dozen US states to roll back recent anti-discrimination gains.
The advocacy groups are particularly concerned over a new law in South Dakota which allows adoption agencies to cite religious beliefs to potentially avoid working with gay parents.
The South Dakota law “is really just the beginning, and is part of a large wave” of similar efforts, said Sarah Warbelow, legal director at the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign (HRC).
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There are more than 100 similar bills in 23 states, according to HRC and the American Civil Liberties Union, including Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee.
The bills aim to loosen restrictions on discriminating against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people through religious exemptions, the groups said.
“We’re seeing different tactics and strategies being used to undermine the rights of LGBT people,” said Eunice Cho of the ACLU.
Texas was “the most egregious offender,” she said, with more than a dozen bills that would, among other things, change foster care rules, grant wedding vendors the right to refuse service, and allow county clerks to abstain from performing gay marriages.
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If I said I am an atheist and so I want to deny Christians marriage licenses or foster kids because of my lack or religious beliefs my actions would be prohibited and held to be discriminatory. Do these people want to mimic Sharia law? We have Mexicans at our borders and Muslims on planes headed over and these people can only think of garnering votes by enshrining religious discrimination to the vulnerable? Where are their priorities?