D’Ammassa: New Mexico Lawmakers Should Scrap Bill That Would Allow Discrimination https://t.co/hPcnZKWo0W

— KRWG-TV/FM (@krwg) December 28, 2015

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Ahead of the next session, Gallegos and Espinoza have introduced House Bill 55, consisting of amendments to the Human Rights Act and the New Mexico Religious Freedom Restoration Act, to allow discrimination against LGBT persons provided that discrimination is “substantially motivated by religious belief.” If it becomes law, New Mexico would join Arkansas, Indiana, and Mississippi among states equating social discrimination with the free exercise of religion.

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House Bill 55 is a mere 10 pages in length and leaves a great deal of latitude for a hateful person to deny essential services to people. It is one thing, and bad enough, to refuse to sell a person a hamburger because they don’t affirm your conditioned ideas about gender. The bill also permits serious oppressions such as denial of medical services. Gallegos has claimed, against common sense, that this will reduce lawsuits.

What these leaders fail to understand is that hate is not a freedom. Hatred oppresses not only the victims of discrimination, but the perpetrators themselves, who feel their identity and integrity are threatened by the presence of those who are different. To become fully human this fractured sense of identity and citizenship must be healed.

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That last quoted paragraph is such a nice one.