Utah's Landmark Legislation

In a landmark feat of collaboration, Utah enacted a pair of laws in 2015 that balanced LGBT rights and religious liberty. One measure, SB 296, bans discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender individuals, while the second, SB 297, protects the right of individuals and religious institutions to maintain the character of their faith communities. Neither compromised the core principles of these communities. Just three weeks before Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act was boycotted, the bills made national and international headlines as an innovative piece of legislation poised to serve as a model for other states. While people on both the right and the left have felt Utah’s approach was not the right strategy, the most telling measure of its success is the citizens of Utah—the LGBT and faith communities—who have enjoyed legal protection and avoided the bitter fights being fought in other states.

In fact, the statewide law protected the full LGBT community from discrimination in housing and hiring, giving LGBT persons more protections from discrimination than New York had extended expressly at that time. As shown in the bullets and charts below, these protections and other innovations in Utah’s law outstripped the amount and variety of religious liberty and LGBT protections found in any state that voluntarily adopted same-sex marriage, and provided an even greater contrast against states that only received same-sex marriage by judicial decision. For example, Utah enacted two-way street speech protections, which ensure that employers can’t punish employees for their speech about sexuality, marriage, and morality, no matter whether that speech occurs in the workplace or not. Utah’s stand-out law, with all its unique protections,  continues to be a testament to the merits of common ground lawmaking.

The hallmark of the Utah Compromise is the degree to which protections for faith extend outside the walls of organized religion to ordinary persons in their work as professionals, some of which hold professional licenses, like realtors. In other words, Utah consciously protected people who don’t have lobbyists to protect them.

Read testimonials from some of the key players involved in reaching the Utah Compromise.