When “Religious Freedom” Kills - Part II

The Supreme Court is going to rule on the Philadelphia case where a Christian adoption agency say they can discriminate against LGBTQ+ people. Where will this so-called “religious freedom” end?

Biden DOJ updates court filing after LGBTQ advocates blast its stance in religious schools case
CNN
By Jessica Schneider, CNN
June 9, 2021


The Biden Justice Department on Wednesday afternoon updated its court filing in a case where it is defending the right of religious schools to discriminate against LGBTQ students after a backlash from critics and a statement from plaintiffs in the case saying they felt "betrayed."
Attorneys from the Justice Department amended their filing to stress that, while they will defend the law in court, the policy surrounding the federal law is being reviewed by the Department of Education.
[…]
Tuesday's initial filing seemed to conflict with the Biden administration's March memo from the DOJ's Civil Rights Division pledging that "[a]ll persons should receive equal treatment under the law, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation," but it also aligned with the DOJ's duty to defend federal laws.

I simply believe that if you receive federal, state, or local government funding it should be for everyone.

LGBTQ rights bill ignites debate over religious liberty
AP
By David Crary
March 8, 2021


A sweeping bill that would extend federal civil rights protections to LGBTQ people is a top priority of President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress. Yet as the Equality Act heads to the Senate after winning House approval, its prospects seem bleak — to a large extent because of opposition from conservative religious leaders.

The public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, calls the act “the most significant threat to religious liberty ever considered in the United States Congress.” The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has assailed it as discriminating against people of faith.

[…]
The bill maintains longstanding exemptions for houses of worship and other religious institutions — for example, they could limit employment to people who shared their faith’s beliefs and could refuse to perform same-sex marriages.

But faith-based homeless shelters and adoption or foster-care agencies that receive federal funding would not be permitted to discriminate against LGBTQ people. And it would be more difficult for a wide range of businesses to justify anti-LGBTQ discrimination, regardless of personal or religious beliefs.

And that’s the way it should be, we cannot have two sets of laws; one nation, one set of laws.
In some places faith-based homeless shelters and adoption or foster-care agencies are the only options available. If this comes to fruition that would mean that faith-based adoption or foster-care agencies could deny interracial couple, unmarried couples, a single person from adopting, and homeless shelters could deny us and also Jews, Muslims, and other non-Christians shelter.

Then we have health care…

LGBT Health Bias Protections Set to Clash With Religion Shield
Bloomberg Law
By Lydia Wheeler
May 14, 2021


New guidance from the Biden administration to protect LGBT people from discrimination in health care is likely to collide with the strongly held religious beliefs of some doctors and the federal law in place to protect them.

Under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, doctors and insurers that receive federal funding are prohibited from denying a person care or health coverage based on their race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability.

In announcing the new administration will be interpreting the word “sex” in Obamacare’s anti-discrimination rules to include sexual orientation and gender identity, the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights said it will comply with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and applicable court orders that stopped the government from forcing certain religious medical providers to treat transgender people.

But advocates for religious freedom aren’t buying it.

Of course not, they believe it is their religious right to be able to discriminate not only in their places of worship but also in public.

Historically religious exemptions to federal laws under RFRA were made on an individualized case-by-case basis. But “it’s been turned on its head and now there’s this argument that it allows for and in fact requires big, broad exemptions for religious entities from otherwise generally applicable, neutral laws, including 1557,” said Katie Keith, a health law professor at Georgetown University.

That is what the Supreme Court is deciding in the Fulton vs. City of Philadelphia case.

And the Supreme Court will decide by the end of the month whether there will be two set of law in the country or a common law that applies to everyone. Will I be able to ignore the law just by saying “It is against my firmly held religious belief.”

And let us not forget Jennifer Lauren Gale who in 2008 couldn't find shelter without her going in a male homeless shelter and died out in the cold. The Texas Civil Rights Review had this to say,

“There was really nowhere for Jennifer Gale to go to protect herself from the cold last night,” said Bier. “The Salvation Army (the only shelter in town that takes in women) would not let her in there unless she was grouped with the men (which includes sleeping with, and showering with, other homeless men). They would make her use her male birth name and completely disregard, and disrespect, her identity as a trans-woman. There is so much to be learned from Jennifer Gale, and so much to be worked on in our community.”