Religious Liberty Laws

Liberty is not a zero-sum game. Just because someone else is protected against unlawful discrimination doesn’t mean that you are harmed or won’t be protected either. The same goes for the ability to live your life openly and authentically according to your faith, sexual orientation, or gender identity. When Utah lawmakers protected the full LGBT community from discrimination in housing and hiring in 2015, the faith community did not find their ability to live out their faith threatened. Quite the contrary: persons of faith received protections allowing them to act on their faith in matters related to marriage without legal risk. Similarly, Utah’s robust religious freedom protections haven’t caused the LGBT community to face more discrimination. Because Utah instituted protections for both communities, LGBT employees can go to a Pride parade on Saturday and not be fired on Monday.  And religious employees can recite parts of Sunday’s sermon without fearing for their jobs.  Liberty can be a win-win.

Religious liberty laws are not simply licenses to discriminate, nor is religion a code word for discrimination. Although religious bigots do exist, the vast majority of religious people practice their religion because of their sincerely-held beliefs, not because they want to hurt other people. For example, a religious florist happily provided flowers to her friend, a gay man, for years.  Not until she was asked to provide flowers for his same-sex wedding ceremony did her beliefs about marriage come up. 

Antiquated laws fan the flames of conflict in the public sphere and the marketplace. One-sided laws—those drafted without recognition that marriage is a sacrament for many in the religious community—have been wielded to treat the desire to step aside from a religiously infused service as no different than tossing a person out of the store.  In the rest of the country, LGBT persons are as unprotected as religious bakers in blue states.

 Fairness for All laws tie together the need of both communities for respect and a place in the public square, so that protections for one rise and fall with protections for the other.