religious exemption Archives - American Atheists https://www.atheists.org/tag/religious-exemption/ Protecting the absolute separation of religion from government. Thu, 09 May 2019 22:23:34 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.2 125490277 Support the Equality Act to Protect Civil Rights and Limit Religious Exemptions! https://www.atheists.org/2019/05/equality-act-religion/ Thu, 09 May 2019 22:23:27 +0000 https://www.atheists.org/?p=11285 The Equality Act (H.R. 5) is a bill that would expand national civil rights laws by prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Next week, the US House of Representatives will hold a historic vote on this critical measure. Without the Equality Act, our country will continue to have a patchwork of inconsistent protections. For example, in 30 states, LGBTQ people are at risk of being fired, refused housing, or denied services under state law. Unfortunately, in some areas where limited protections exist, they are subject to overly broad religious exemptions. The Equality Act would change this by creating a foundation of basic non-discrimination protections across the nation that would protect LGBTQ people in areas such as employment, housing, education, and public accommodations, without expanding harmful religious exemptions! Please take action now—ask your Representative to vote for the Equality Act! By ensuring protections for LGBTQ people under national civil rights laws, the Equality Act would actually strengthen protections for everyone. For example, the bill expands the meaning of “public accommodations” to include retail stores; transportation services like airports, taxis, and bus stations; and service providers like accountants. The Equality Act would also protect youth in child welfare services by preventing state-funded religious foster care and adoption agencies from discriminating against LGBTQ people. Currently, 10 states have laws on the books that allow discrimination on the basis of religion, and other states are considering this issue. Stop more states from adopting discriminatory legislation in the name of religion! Support the Equality Act! The Equality Act has overwhelming bipartisan support in the House of Representatives, and these protections are supported by a substantial majority of Americans. This commonsense legislation is long past due. Please ask your Representative to vote FOR the Equality Act when this bill comes before the House next week!

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]]> 11285 American Atheists Submits Testimony Supporting Bill Preventing Religiously-Motivated Discrimination in Massachusetts https://www.atheists.org/2018/06/mass-testimony-h767/ Wed, 27 Jun 2018 16:59:09 +0000 https://www.atheists.org/?p=7692 Boston, MA—On behalf of its more than 1,000 members and supporters in Massachusetts, American Atheists has submitted testimony in support of H 767, a bill that would prevent for-profit business owners from discriminating on the basis of religious belief.  The bill would close the loopholes created by the U.S. Supreme Court in its Hobby Lobby and Masterpiece Cakeshop decisions. Massachusetts law currently prohibits various forms of discrimination in areas like housing, employment, and public accommodations, on the grounds of race, color, religious creed, national origin, sex, gender identity, disability, veteran status, and others. While current law provides specific limited exemptions for religious nonprofit organizations, such as allowing religious schools or houses of worship to give religion-based employment preferences, state law does not specifically address claims for-profit businesses. For 50 years before the 2014 Hobby Lobby decision, the Supreme Court has not recognized a business owner’s religious objections as a valid argument for challenging neutral public accommodation laws. However, Hobby Lobby opened the flood gates for similar claims across the nation. H 767 would explicitly prevent for-profit businesses organized under state law and similar businesses incorporated in other states but doing business in Massachusetts from raising religious claims for corporate exemptions to nondiscrimination laws. The bill would not amend Massachusetts’ nondiscrimination laws themselves, but would instead clarify that business corporations do not have the power under Massachusetts law to assert “based on the purported religious beliefs or moral convictions on the part of the corporation,” exemptions from or claims of defense against nondiscrimination laws. You can read American Atheists’ testimony here.

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