POLITICS
GOP Offers LGBTQ Rights Bill — With Big Carve-Outs
Advocates, out gay electeds strongly reject legislative effort by US House members
BY MATT TRACY
Several House Republicans
who recently voted
against the comprehensive
LGBTQ rights bill
known as the Equality Act rolled
out their own version of a queer
rights bill on December 6, but advocates
and LGBTQ lawmakers
promptly raised alarms over numerous
religious carve-outs embedded
within the legislation.
Republicans pitching the bill,
dubbed the Fairness for All Act
(FFAA), claim it would usher in
many of the same protections as
the Equality Act and cover employment,
housing, public accommodations,
credit, federally-funded
services, refugee resettlement, and
jury service.
But there are caveats — numerous
ones, in fact — so much so that
the bill has support from religious
groups traditionally known to be
hostile to LGBTQ rights: the Mormon
Church and the Seventh-Day
Adventist Church.
The fi ne print is instructive.
While the FFAA would follow the
exemption for businesses with
fewer than 15 employees embedded
in the 1964 Civil Rights Act,
it would also exempt religious and
religious-affi liated employers even
in the hiring of workers whose job
function has no connection to faith
activities. It would also broaden the
right of employees to voice anti-LGBTQ
sentiments in the workplace,
and adoption agencies would have
the right to turn away same-sex
prospective parents. While public
schools would need to abide
by anti-bullying policies, private
schools would be exempt. Those
are just some of the many sweeteners
aimed at satisfying religious
conservatives.
The bill, similar to a 2015 nondiscrimination
measure that was
enacted in Utah, was introduced
in the House by Congressmember
Chris Stewart of Utah, who led a
press conference announcing the
bill at the Capitol on December 6
and is planning a separate presser
in his home state on December 9.
Republican Congressmember Chris Stewart introduces the Fairness for All Act at the US Capitol
alongside supporters of the bill, including Margaret Hoover (left) and Tyler Deaton (second from left) of
the American Unity Fund.
The bill is laced with many other
conditions that will undoubtedly
provoke opposition within the LGBTQ
community. Spaces not considered
public accommodations
under this bill include not only
churches and religious headquarters,
but also religious schools,
religious funeral homes and cemeteries,
religious-affi liated charities,
and mental health therapists
focusing on marriage. Faith-based
adoption and foster care agencies
would be exempted, for example,
by steering any federal funding for
such activity to prospective adoptive
or foster parents rather than
to the institutions that serve them
— or don’t.
How the bill interacts with local
laws varies — and, here, the bill’s
sponsors will have trouble maintaining
their argument that it does
not curb any existing civil rights.
Although the bill allows state and
local law to override the exemption
of small business from nondiscrimination
requirements, there are
other cases where this legislation
would preempt existing local protections.
In an information sheet
distributed in connection with the
announcement of the FFAA, supporters
state that Catholic Charities
could legally refuse to hire a
lesbian despite hiring non-Christians
TWITTER/ CONGRESSMEMBER CHRIS STEWART
and the lesbian could pursue
no local or state remedies and no
level of government could punish
Catholic Charities. The legislation
affi rmatively creates a federal right
for Catholic Charities to act in this
discriminatory way.
Co-sponsors — all Republicans
— include Congressmembers Fred
Upton of Michigan, Elise Stefanik
of New York, Rob Bishop and John
Curtis of Utah, Mark Amodei of
Nevada, David Joyce of Ohio, and
Mike Simpson of Idaho. Interestingly,
Representative Brian Fitzpatrick
of Pennsylvania — who
was just one of three House GOP
co-sponsors of the Equality Act,
along with John Katko of New York
and Jenniffer González-Colon of
Puerto Rico — also backs the Fairness
for All Act.
A handful of infl uential political
fi gures played a key role in pushing
for GOP support on Capitol
Hill, including Tyler Deaton and
Margaret Hoover from the American
Unity Fund, a group whose
stated aim is to advance “the cause
of freedom for LGBTQ Americans
by making the conservative case,”
and Tim Schultz of the 1st Amendment
Partnership, a group that
fi ghts to protect religious freedom.
Shirley Hoogstra, the president of
the Council for Christian Colleges
& Universities, also backed the effort.
Notably, no members of the US
Senate have stood in support of the
bill, and Deaton told Gay City News
in an email that the bill would not
be introduced in the upper chamber
until after the conclusion of the
Supreme Court cases related to
LGBTQ discrimination that were
argued earlier this fall. It seems
unlikely that any supporters of the
Equality Act would engage FFAA
supporters in discussion or negotiation
without, at minimum, a sign
of Senate Republican support for
this new bill.
The Alliance Defending Freedom
(ADF), an anti-LGBTQ legal group
known for stifl ing queer rights legislation
in courts, did not respond
to Gay City News’ requests for comment
on the legislation. The group,
however, unveiled a press release
in December of last year criticizing
the Council for Christian Colleges
& Universities for supporting the
Fairness for All legislation.
“Unfortunately, sexual orientation
and gender identity SOGI
laws like the so-called ‘Fairness
for All’ proposal undermine both
fairness and freedom,” Kristen
Waggoner, a senior vice president
for ADF’s US legal division, said in
that written statement. “This proposal
is a SOGI law under different
branding, with special — and likely
temporary — exemptions that
protect only a favored few.”
Republican supporters of the
FFAA have been warned their records
will suffer in congressional
scorecards kept by far right
groups.
Out gay Congressmember David
Cicilline of Rhode Island, who
is co-chair of the LGBT Equality
Caucus, said in a written statement
on behalf of the group that
the bill “does not protect LGBTQ
people.”
“Instead it codifi es discrimination,”
Cicilline said. “The House
already overwhelmingly passed
the bipartisan Equality Act, which
will ensure equal protection under
➤ GOP BILL WITH OPT-OUTS, continued on p.7
December 19, 2019 - January 1, 2 6 020 | GayCityNews.com
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