SPLC - ‘Religious Liberty’ and the Anti-LGBT Right
The Southern Poverty Law Center has released an expose on the homophobic / transphobic hate groups behind the spate of anti gay “religious freedom” bills that have cropped up across America. Read everything Heidi Beirich wrote. Help expose these bigots and their baseless claims about protecting “religious liberty.”
The hardline groups promoting ‘religious freedom restoration acts’ to justify anti-gay discrimination.
In recent years, the LGBT rights movement has witnessed a sea change in American attitudes toward the gay community and, along with it, a series of dramatic policy and legal victories — most notably marriage equality — that would have seemed unthinkable just a decade ago.
Yet, while the majority of Americans support LGBT rights, these gains have produced a strong backlash.
The hardline religious-right groups that have long relied on the use of demonizing falsehoods to justify discrimination against LGBT people have not simply folded their tents and walked away.
Rather, they have used their large megaphone to create a dangerous new narrative that portrays Christians who object to homosexuality on biblical grounds as victims of religious persecution. This idea is particularly compelling to millions of evangelicals who see themselves and their values as being under siege in a rapidly changing society.
Across the country, these opponents of LGBT equality are working to persuade state legislatures to pass laws known as Religious Freedom Restoration Acts (RFRAs) — statutes that ostensibly allow individuals to deny goods and services to LGBT people on the basis of their religious beliefs.