House Republicans Again Seek to Cement LGBT Discrimination Into Law

getequal_smGetEQUAL Responds to Bill Allowing Businesses and Organizations to Freely Discriminate

WASHINGTON, DC—A bill introduced on September 19th by Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) is the latest attempt by Congress to limit the civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans. GetEQUAL — a social justice organization focused on winning full equality for LGBT Americans — opposes the bill.

Labrador introduced the “Marriage and Religious Freedom Act” yesterday with 57 Republican co-sponsors and two Democratic co-sponsors. While Labrador maintains that this legislation “protects” organizations and companies that want to freely discriminate against LGBT Americans, the bill actually goes against core Republican values of smaller government in order to allow these entities to maintain discriminatory practices and to pick and choose which laws to follow. [pullquote]… the bill actually goes against core Republican values of smaller government in order to allow these entities to maintain discriminatory practices and to pick and choose which laws to follow.[/pullquote]

“The bill is a political stunt, pure and simple — and it drags our country backward rather than moving us forward,” said Heather Cronk, co-director of GetEQUAL. “As a seminary graduate, I would fight tooth and nail for religious liberty and I firmly maintain that religious liberty is a cornerstone of American democracy; however, this bill isn’t about religious freedom. This bill is about falsely positioning discriminatory companies as victims. Rather than trying to solve real problems, Rep. Labrador has again gone out of his way to bully LGBT Americans into silence. It’s unbelievable to me that, on the same day the House voted to strip food stamps from hard-working Americans, Rep. Labrador still found time to introduce this mean-spirited and discriminatory bill.”

The full bill text will be posted on Thomas at: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.113hr3133. More information on the bill can be found here: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2013/09/19/rep-raul-labrador-to-introduce-bill-protecting-groups-that-oppose-same-sex/

GetEQUAL is a national grassroots social justice organization whose mission is to empower the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community and allies to take bold action to demand full legal and social equality, and to hold accountable those who stand in the way. For more information, go to www.getequal.org. You can also follow GetEQUAL on Facebook at www.facebook.com/getequal or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/getequal.

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