House Dems Slam GOP Over Proposed Anti-LGBT Bill

"This hearing is deeply hurtful to a still grieving LGBT and allied community."

From: NewNowNext

 Exactly one month after the horrific mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Republican House lawmakers gathered to discuss a bill that many believe could open the floodgates for rampant LGBT discrimination.

The hearing was held this past Tuesday and saw legislators discussing the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), a proposed “religious liberty” bill that would prohibit the federal government from taking “discriminatory action” against any person who “believes or acts in accordance with a religious belief or moral conviction” that marriage should be between “one man and one woman.”

Essentially the legislation, which borrows language from Mississippi’s sweeping anti-LGBT HB 1523, would allow individuals to deny services, accommodations, facilities, goods or privileges to LGBT folks under the guise of protecting their religious liberties.

The measure was introduced last year by Rep. Raul Labrador (pictured above alongside Ted Cruz) and currently has 171 co-sponsors. In defense of FADA, Labrador said, “It has never been our intention to give anyone a so-called license to discriminate,” adding that the bill doesn’t “take away anybody’s rights…it just attempts to enshrine in law religious liberties long believed to be protected.”

House Democrats came down heavily on FADA, arguing that the protections it seeks will come at the cost of existing protections for LGBT people. If passed, employers could cite the bill when discriminating against LGBT employees and hospitals could easily bar same-sex spouses from patient rooms.

Marriage equality is the law of the land. But #LGBT Americans still lack federal protections against discrimination they desperately need.

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) July 12, 2016

The GOP #FADA bill could let hospitals, government workers, employers, & even landlords discriminate against married same-sex couples.

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) July 12, 2016

The @HouseGOP should be ashamed. The last thing Congress should be doing is giving homophobic Americans a license to discriminate.

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) July 12, 2016

“This hearing is deeply hurtful to a still grieving LGBT and allied community,” said former Supreme Court plaintiff Jim Obergefell, who was called to witness against FADA by the Democratic party.

“Earlier in this hearing it was stated that the purpose of the First Amendment Defense Act is to ensure no one is discriminated against because of how they view marriage,” he continued. “I would like you to read the bill again and understand that is exactly what the bill does.”

Fellow witness Katherine Franke, a professor at Columbia Law, added that the bill was “creating a solution to a problem that does not exist” and that it would upset “the delicate balance” between individual beliefs and the federal government.

With any luck, FADA will meet the same fate as its sister bill HB 1523, which a federal judge blocked earlier this month.