Why LGBT Americans Are Leery of Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby Ruling [View all]

[William769]

LGBT activists have been warning about this scenario. The Supreme Court ruled today that employers have a right to cite their religion as reason to deny employees coverage for contraception, and that leaves some wondering what comes next.

The impact of the court's 5-4 ruling is still being interpreted by legal analysts. But despite assurances from the court that its ruling is "very specific," it could still have far-reaching consequences for LGBT Americans when seeking health care or even, eventually, in their daily lives. The court said Hobby Lobby and other closely held corporations are protected from the government interfering in the exercise of their religion by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. The Internal Revenue Service defines a closely held corporation as one in which more than 50 percent of the value of all outstanding stock is owned by five or fewer people.

Activists had warned that if Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties — the businesses that challenged Obamacare — could use their "sincerely held religious beliefs" to deny contraception to employees, then they might use the same power to deny health care to transgender people or might withhold coverage for HIV and AIDS treatment to LGBT employees.

Birth control for women is a lot like pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PReP, for gay men, for example. Truvada PReP is a pill taken daily that prevents HIV-negative men from contracting the disease during sex with other men (it can also be used by HIV-negative partners in heterosexual relationships). Hobby Lobby argued that offering coverage for certain types of contraception made them complicit in what amounted to abortion. Obviously, the Christian-owned chain of craft stores is also opposed to gay people having sex with each other, and likely wouldn't want to be complicit in that, either.

http://www.advocate.com/politics/2014/06/30/why-lgbt-americans-are-leery-supreme-courts-hobby-lobby-ruling