Kansas Really Damn Close To Legalizing Anti-Gay Discrimination

[Callisto]

Kansas House Bill #2453 has passed the state House, and is now headed to the state Senate.

http://nation.time.com/2014/02/11/ka...moves-forward/

Kansas lawmakers passed a bill Tuesday that would permit businesses and government employees to deny service to same-sex couples on the basis of their religious principles. The measure passed an initial vote in the house by a significant margin, 72 votes to 42 votes. In a final vote on Wednesday, the bill succeeded 72 votes to 49 votes and will now be considered by the Republican-controlled state senate.

State lawmakers engaged in heated debate over House Bill 2453, which would allow hotels, restaurants and stores in the state to refuse to serve gay couples if “it would be contrary to their sincerely held religious beliefs.” The bill would also allow government clerks to refuse to sign same-sex marriage licenses without threat of a lawsuit.

If a government employee chooses to refuse service, the bill states that the government must attempt to provide another employee to “promptly” provide that service “if it can be done without undue hardship to the employer.”

This bill is part of a larger trend across the U.S., pitting gay rights advocates against conservatives who say same-sex marriage is contrary to their religious beliefs. A baker in Colorado was ordered to stop discriminating against same-sex couples in December, after refusing to make a cake for a gay couple’s wedding.

tl;dr is that the bill says that any business or employer can refuse to do business with or fire any gay people if they really really really believe that Jesus is great and hates gays.

Anti-discrimination lawsuits would be barred, as long as the grounds were based on orientation and not gender/race/etc. It covers both private and public employees, so technically if a police officer or paramedic thought gay marriage is wrong he could refuse to provide services to a gay person.

Republican cover for this is that oh, it doesn't explicitly say gay so if you felt that straight marriage violated your religious beliefs, you could legally discriminate against them as well.

More, with a bunch of links and such: http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2...omination.html

[ringthree]

The real defense is the growing trend that is claiming that gay marriage is an offense to them so it the people "forcing" gay marriage on them that are discriminating on the basis of religion.

Its the god damned dumbest thing ever, and totally a political stunt because it wouldn't last a millisecond in court.

[wipers]

My jimmies are not rustled yet. Waiting. This sounds a lot like some other article I read about gay wedding cakes also. But thread has keys to success.

Gay check.

Religion check.

Kansas check.

Republicans check.

[Callisto]

My jimmies are not rustled yet. Waiting. This sounds a lot like some other article I read about gay wedding cakes also. But thread has keys to success.

Yeah, legally this is kind of along the lines of the Colorado wedding cake maker, who it was found could not deny service to gay couples.

[Waraji]

Imminent Supreme Court overruling constitutionality - pending.

[wipers]

Imminent Supreme Court overruling constitutionality - pending.

I was just thinking about this also.

[Callisto]

One kind of positive thing that I see from it, which is also happening in Indiana's arguments over gay marriage rights, is that gay rights activists are now focusing on the business aspects rather than the personal ones. The argument is shifting from 'gays are people, too' which falls entirely on deaf ears with conservatives, to 'Why would anyone move to our state to create new productivity and tax revenue if they're gay, we'd be screwing ourselves out of potential money'.

[Roranora]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...perSticker.jpg

it's a fairly popular one in the state, believe it or not, mocking the "As big as you think" state slogan jibberish

[wipers]

I would assume that personal freedom trumps being offended but I guess not. I was just checking this story out on CNN over 5,000 comments.

[kuronosan]

And yet people love Governor Brownback here.

Honestly, this is a western Kansas thing. Kansas City practically stands alone along with Topeka as the only two real progressive cities in the state.

Unfortunately, there's everything that isn't east, which is a lot of the state (like 80% of it) that is farmers, old-fashioned folks, and big big big Baptist peoples that hate gays and love America.

This'll probably pass, but it won't last long.

[Roranora]

PRAISE JESUS

[Callisto]

I would assume that personal freedom trumps being offended but I guess not.

In terms of a private business being able to decide who they serve, I would agree with this especially if it's not a monopolized field. As far as public agents though, giving them the ability to decline service based on their religious beliefs seems like a 1st Amendment violation, and employers being able to fire based on it with no potential repercussions is definitely a no-go.

[wipers]

Yea if you are hired "at will" you can basically get fired for almost anything.

[Serra]

The real defense is the growing trend that is claiming that gay marriage is an offense to them so it the people "forcing" gay marriage on them that are discriminating on the basis of religion.

Its the god damned dumbest thing ever, and totally a political stunt because it wouldn't last a millisecond in court.

People said the same thing about interracial marriage -- even quoted sections of the bible, etc. The law eventually came down on that and said, we can't force you to perform marriages, but if you're discriminating against US citizens, we can revoke your tax exempt status. The reality is that most churches can't survive without that status, so they complied. I actually brought this up in a class once and had a student pretty much reveal himself to be racist and against interracial marriage. Was a good time.

[Edelweiss]

The legend continues.

[Kuya]

Well someone is really mad about gay people

[Odin'sLaw]

even as a straight man i just don't even understand how people can be this hateful towards gay people O.o

[Aksannyi]

even as a person i just don't even understand how people can be this hateful towards people O.o

Fixed that for you ... you're a human being with at least some measure of compassion, there are quite a few people who lack in that capacity.

[Odin'sLaw]

Fixed that for you ... you're a human being with at least some measure of compassion, there are quite a few people who lack in that capacity.

no the point was "even tho i am meant to be on the "right" side i don't even understand how this can be a thing"

Merica you guys are just fucked in the head :/ (well Idaho and Kansas)

[Aksannyi]

no the point was "even tho i am meant to be on the "right" side i don't even understand how this can be a thing"

Merica you guys are just fucked in the head :/ (well Idaho and Kansas)

I know what you meant to say and I don't discount your point. But it shouldn't matter who you are and who these other people are. People are people ... so I was also trying to make a point about how people forget that people are people, which is disturbing and sad.

Could have worded it better in my first post. I'm more disturbed that people just do this to other people, regardless of whether or not you consider the differences in culture/lifestyle/etc.