Leave it to members of the Kansas legislature
to embarrass the entire state by passing outdated laws that are clearly
designed to discriminate against gays and liberal religious beliefs.
House Bill 2453 is labeled as a bill to protect people’s religious freedom. But it really allows a person to legally practice bigotry based on their religion. The House passed the bill 72 votes to 49 on Wednesday.
According to The Wichita Eagle the bill was taken up in response to federal court rulings that overturned same-sex marriage bans in Utah and Oklahoma, would allow public and private employees to refuse service based on religious views of marriage.
Senate President Susan Wagle told The Wichita Eagle that ‘a strong majority of senate members support laws that define traditional marriage, protect religious institutions, and protect individuals from being forced to violate their personal moral values.’
There has been some opposition to the bill even from Republicans. Sen. Michael O’Donnell, R-Wichita, said he was afraid to support the bill because it is unnecessary. He told The Wichita Eagle ‘It’s too broadly defined, and he doesn’t believe it was necessary when we already have traditional marriage defined in the state constitution.’ Also all eight Senate Democrats oppose the bill.
Rep. Charles Macheers, R-Shawnee, who introduced the bill, has said it applies only to wedding celebrations. The bill would allow employees of a wedding-related business, such as a catering company, to refuse to work at a same-sex wedding. They can site religious beliefs to defend their action.
Opponents have said the bill is too broadly defined and allows for discrimination in other areas
Kansas already has a law protecting Pharmacy workers from being fired if they don’t want to fill a prescription for birth control. They can’t be fired if the Pharmacy worker’s religion doesn’t approve of birth control. It protects that worker’s rights, but the customer can easily go to another pharmacy and the pharmacy manager or owner is just out of luck and out of that business.
According to Politicus USA;
“Democrats didn’t make the GOP presidential field back “personhood” laws that would criminalize some forms of birth control. They didn’t force the newly elected House GOP to make defunding Planned Parenthood their first legislative goal. And they didn’t propose the Blunt Amendment that would have allowed employers to withhold health insurance coverage not only for contraception, but for any treatment they disapproved of…”
Could this reach the absurdity where Jews and Moslems could work for a grocery store and refuse to prepare ham for any kind of sale based on their religions?
When it comes to workers rights in Kansas, there are none beyond federal racial and sex discrimination. Until these new laws, an employer can fire a person for any reason for no reason at all. These new laws they are passing seem to suggest this is changing.
Last year Meagan May was fired from her job at a movie theatre, Carmike Cinemas, for posting negative comments about the military. No Republicans came to her rescue. Only liberals came to her defense. Now that we have all these new laws, will people such as May be able to sue to get their job back, based on her religious beliefs?
House Bill 2453 is labeled as a bill to protect people’s religious freedom. But it really allows a person to legally practice bigotry based on their religion. The House passed the bill 72 votes to 49 on Wednesday.
According to The Wichita Eagle the bill was taken up in response to federal court rulings that overturned same-sex marriage bans in Utah and Oklahoma, would allow public and private employees to refuse service based on religious views of marriage.
Senate President Susan Wagle told The Wichita Eagle that ‘a strong majority of senate members support laws that define traditional marriage, protect religious institutions, and protect individuals from being forced to violate their personal moral values.’
There has been some opposition to the bill even from Republicans. Sen. Michael O’Donnell, R-Wichita, said he was afraid to support the bill because it is unnecessary. He told The Wichita Eagle ‘It’s too broadly defined, and he doesn’t believe it was necessary when we already have traditional marriage defined in the state constitution.’ Also all eight Senate Democrats oppose the bill.
Rep. Charles Macheers, R-Shawnee, who introduced the bill, has said it applies only to wedding celebrations. The bill would allow employees of a wedding-related business, such as a catering company, to refuse to work at a same-sex wedding. They can site religious beliefs to defend their action.
Opponents have said the bill is too broadly defined and allows for discrimination in other areas
Kansas already has a law protecting Pharmacy workers from being fired if they don’t want to fill a prescription for birth control. They can’t be fired if the Pharmacy worker’s religion doesn’t approve of birth control. It protects that worker’s rights, but the customer can easily go to another pharmacy and the pharmacy manager or owner is just out of luck and out of that business.
According to Politicus USA;
“Democrats didn’t make the GOP presidential field back “personhood” laws that would criminalize some forms of birth control. They didn’t force the newly elected House GOP to make defunding Planned Parenthood their first legislative goal. And they didn’t propose the Blunt Amendment that would have allowed employers to withhold health insurance coverage not only for contraception, but for any treatment they disapproved of…”
Could this reach the absurdity where Jews and Moslems could work for a grocery store and refuse to prepare ham for any kind of sale based on their religions?
When it comes to workers rights in Kansas, there are none beyond federal racial and sex discrimination. Until these new laws, an employer can fire a person for any reason for no reason at all. These new laws they are passing seem to suggest this is changing.
Last year Meagan May was fired from her job at a movie theatre, Carmike Cinemas, for posting negative comments about the military. No Republicans came to her rescue. Only liberals came to her defense. Now that we have all these new laws, will people such as May be able to sue to get their job back, based on her religious beliefs?
We
have to respect other people’s religious beliefs.
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