Religion Shouldn't Be an Excuse for Discrimination

[William769]

Following the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” in late 2010 and the successful transition to open service for gay, lesbian, and bisexual service members in 2011, many assumed that enshrined discrimination against LGBT people was on its way out.

But some opponents of LGBT equality in Congress have refused to give up the fight. Now that they could no longer keep lesbians, gay men, and bisexual people from serving openly in the military, they have shifted gears. What is their new strategy? To misuse religious liberty as a license to discriminate.

Religious liberty is one of our nation’s most cherished values, and something that the American Civil Liberties Union has fought to safeguard since our founding nearly a century ago. It guarantees us the freedom to hold any belief we choose and the right to act on our religious beliefs — but it does not allow us to harm or discriminate against others.

We’ve seen this play out over the past several years during the annual debate on the defense bill — known as the National Defense Authorization Act — in Congress. Those most opposed to DADT repeal and open service have sought to authorize discrimination against certain service members based on their sexual orientation under the guise of religious freedom. Last year then-representative Todd Akin, whose remarks that pregnancy cannot result from a “legitimate rape” became infamous during the 2012 election campaign, successfully added an amendment that required accommodation of all beliefs of members of the armed forces “concerning the appropriate and inappropriate expression of human sexuality,” which could have required that the military turn a blind eye to harassment and discrimination.

http://www.advocate.com/commentary/2013/05/21/op-ed-religion-shouldnt-be-excuse-discrimination