Our Last Best Chance to Protect Churches and Religious Schools
LGBTQ advocacy groups are now pushing the Governor to quickly sign SB 868 (D- Ebbin), a far-reaching bill that adds “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” (SOGI) to nondiscrimination laws including in private employment, public accommodations, and housing without real protections that allow many churches, private schools, and other religious organizations to continue to carry out their missions free from the threat of crushing lawsuits.
We’ve spent several weeks educating legislators on the detrimental impacts of these bills on faith-conscious businesses and nonprofits, but especially for religious organizations. ALL we’ve asked for are extremely modest clarifications that simply ensure churches, religious schools and religious nonprofit ministries can continue to operate according to their core religious tenets without being targeted, sued and fined. That battle is still raging as the 2020 Session wraps up its final week.
The main proponent of this bill, Equality Virginia, has picked up on our efforts and is rallying its supporters to ask Governor Northam to sign these bills “without amendments.” (See below.)
Given how narrow our proposed amendments have been to only protect religious organizations in employment, public accommodations and housing, it’s very revealing that Equality Virginia says that these amendments “would limit its [the bill’s] effectiveness.” This makes it clear beyond all doubt that the true intent of this bill is to force churches and religious organizations to abandon their orthodox positions on marriage and sexuality, or face the heavy hand of the state and endless private lawsuits.
However, the fact that LGBTQ advocacy groups are actually pressing the Governor to sign SB 868 right away “without any amendments” means your unwavering persistence is having a significant impact on our elected leaders! We believe we can and will get stronger protections in place, but we need you to keep up the pressure!
This week the full Senate will be voting on SB 868’s companion, HB 1663 (D-Sickles), which is still without meaningful protections for churches and religious schools in Virginia. The floor vote, along with any amendments, will likely be this Thursday.
As we’ve stated in previous email alerts, these bills will have serious consequences if protections are not added. To learn more about this issue, I encourage you to read our recent blogs:
URGENT Action Alert: Status of Bills Attacking Religious Freedom
Shocking Honesty: VA Democrats Really Are Targeting Churches
UPDATE On Religious Liberty: Pastors Packed the Room, Hearing Pushed to Tomorrow!
