Under Attack Again

While the Supreme Court debates religious based discrimination in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case a Florida legislator wants to introduce Florida’s own “religious freedom” special rights law.

Florida proposes anti-LGBT ‘licence to discriminate’ law
Pink News
By Joseph Patrick McCormick 
20th December 2017

The US state of Florida could be getting its own brand new law allowing businesses to discriminate based on sexual orientation [let us not forget us… an gender identity].

Trump-supporting Republican Florida state Representative Jay Fant has introduced the ‘Free Enterprise Protection Act’, which would allow businesses to discriminate against LGBT people.

Fant, a state Representative who also has aspirations to be the state’s next attorney general has said he was inspired by a legal case around the Masterpiece Cakeshop which refused to sell a wedding cake to a same-sex couple.

The bill, House Bill 871, is crafted in the vision of the First Amendment Defense Act which has been introduced in Congress.

If enacted, the law would block the government from taking “discriminatory action” against any business over its “personal employee benefit policies”.

It would also protect businesses claiming they are exercising freedoms of religion.

Notice the bill is very broad and is not just limited to sexual orientation, the text of the bill says that any law that goes against businesses’ rights of freedom of expression and free exercise of religion.

Besides giving them right to discriminate against anything and anyone, it also treats businesses a person.

Meanwhile also down in Florida some sanity…

Palm Beach County becomes Florida's first county to ban gay conversion therapy
Orlando Weekly
Posted By Xander Peters
December 19, 2017

On Tuesday, Palm Beach County commissioners voted to ban gay conversion therapy for minors, becoming the first county in Florida to do so outright.

Citing a lawsuit by members of the Maitland-based Liberty Counsel, an anti-LGBTQ hate group, against the city of Tampa, Palm Beach County Attorney Denise Nieman reportedly recommended that the commission not vote in favor of the proposed ordinance. However, a sweeping 5-2 majority in favor of the conversion ban decided otherwise.

Gay conversion therapy — also known as "reparative therapy" or "sexual orientation therapy" — has been increasingly banned across the state of Florida (and the world), in large part cited as an overwhelmingly harmful practice.

Proponents of the draconian practice view these bans as an infringement of the right to freedom of speech for therapists, thus crossing the conservative lines drawn in the sand in terms of government overreach.

And of course Liberty Counsel is involved with the lawsuit; it is an evangelical Christian law firm that has ties with Liberty University Law School, which was founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell. They are labeled as a Hate Group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Connecticut has a law banning Conversion Therapy for minors under 18.