Traitors!

There are southern Democrats and some of them are not in the south…

Meet the two Democrats who won’t support federal nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people
LGBTQ Nation
By Bil Browning
March 18, 2019

Illinois Congressman Dan Lipinski and West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin are the lone Democrats who won’t sign on to the Equality Act. The proposed law would ban discrimination against LGBTQ people.

Both men are known for their conservative views and Republican-lite political decisions. They’ve both been a pain in the neck for Democratic leaders.

Lipinksi was the only Democrat to co-sponsor the “First Amendment Defense Act.” The measure would have allowed discrimination against LGBTQ people specifically. He also voted against previous bills that would have prevented discrimination and opposes marriage equality. He has the worst record on LGBTQ rights of all current members of the House and Senate.

One of the things about I don’t like about the Republican Party is that they don’t quarter any opposition from within their ranks… you toe the party line or else.

Conversely the Democrats don’t rein in wayward Democrats which I believe makes them a stronger party however, that also means that there will be conservative Democrats who vote the Republican line.

The voters elected legislators but it seems to me that the Republicans expect their members to vote for the party not for the voters. But we are seeing cracks in the big Red wall, there were defectors who voted against the Trump wall executive order.

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So what is the Equality Act?

Democrats reintroduce Equality Act to ban LGBTQ discrimination
The bill would add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the classes protected against discrimination by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
NBC Out News
By Tim Fitzsimons
March 13, 2019

Congressional Democrats introduced on Wednesday the Equality Act, a bill that would modify existing civil rights legislation to ban discrimination against LGBTQ people in employment, housing, public accommodations, jury service, education, federal programs and credit.

The bill was introduced by Senate and House Democrats at a press conference on Capitol Hill.
[…]
First introduced in 2015, the Equality Act is a version of a bill introduced in 1974. In addition to adding "gender identity" and "sexual orientation" to the classes protected against discrimination by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the new bill specifies that it is illegal to discriminate against all protected classes in retail stores, emergency shelters, banks, transit and pharmacies, among other places.

"The Equality Act also clarifies that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) cannot be used in civil rights contexts, prohibiting religious liberty — which is a core American value — from being used as a license to discriminate," the ACLU wrote in a press release.

And that is what has the Republicans in a tizzy… “Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) cannot be used in civil rights contexts, prohibiting religious liberty — which is a core American value — from being used as a license to discriminate," they want to hide their bigotry behind “religious freedom.”

'Frontal Assault on Religious Liberty': Why Religious Freedom Advocates Are so Alarmed About the 'Equality Act'
The Christian Broadcasting Network
By Abigail Robertson
March 18, 2019

WASHINGTON, DC - Religious freedom advocates are sounding an alarm on the new Equality Act. Democrats introduced an updated version of the bill that aims to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation last week, but opponents say the bill is anything but equal.

Critics tell CBN News if the Equality Act becomes law, results could include males identifying as females using women's locker rooms, faith-based adoption and foster agencies required to place children with same-sex couples, and florists forced to fill orders for same-sex weddings.

"Every American should be treated with dignity and respect, but our laws need to protect the constitutionally guaranteed rights that we have," Greg Baylor from the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) tells CBN News.

Wrong, wrong, wrong the First Amendment according to court rulings since the founding of our country the courts have ruled that the First Amendment pertains to the right to worship not to discriminate. There is a long list of court rulings about the religious neutral laws.

The Cornell Law School writes…

“The First Amendment contains two clauses that prescribe the government's relationship with religion. In the first instance, the Establishment Clause states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." In the strictest reading, the Establishment Clause proscribes any adoption of an official religion by the federal government. More broadly, the phrase functions as a way of assuring that the federal government will not adopt any stance in favor of or against any religion.”
[…]
The second clause of the First Amendment that deals with religion immediately follows the Establishment Clause: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the exercise thereof." Where the first clause prohibits Congress from adopting any particular religion, the second clause prohibits Congress from interfering with an individual's exercise of religion.
[…]
The Supreme Court has interpreted limits to the Free Exercise Clause and allowed the government to legislate against certain religious practices, such as bigamy and peyote use. In the last 30 years especially, the Court has generally adopted a more restrictive view of the protections of the Free Exercise Clause. Some commentators have suggested that the Free Exercise Clause is contradictory with the Establishment Clause because by protecting certain religious practices that the government would otherwise like to prohibit, the Constitution takes stance in favor of and not neutral to religion.

But now the courts are overturning the precedent set over the years and now the courts thanks to the religious conservative judges appointed by the Republicans are allowing the federal government to adopt a stance in favor of a religion, throwing out the religious neutral test.

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Update 10:30 AM

Support for the Equality Act comes from a strange source, one that usually doesn’t support us.

Most US Evangelical Christians support the measures in the Equality Act
Gay Times
By Matt Moore
17th March 2019

A study found that 54% of Evangelicals back the measures in the bill, with only 38% opposing.

The Public Religion Research Institute has released figures which show that 54% of white Evangelicals in the United States back the measures in the Equality Act.
[…]
Evangelical Christians are considered to be the most conservative group in the United States when it comes to supporting LGBTQ rights, and yet the figures show that they support the Act by a 16-point margin.

The figures also showed that most major religious groups in the country also support the measures in the Equality Act. 53% of Jehovah’s Witnesses, 70% of Mormons, 68% of non-white Catholics, 65% of African American Protestants, 60% of Muslims and 59% of Orthodox Christians support the bill. But the religious group with the most backing for the bill were the New Age religions, with 81% in favour.

Hmm… I wonder what New Age Religions are?