By Zack Ford
The New Hampshire House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday held a hearing on HB 1264, which is essentially a “License To Discriminate” bill.
The measure would allow businesses that oppose marriage equality to deny services to same-sex couples based on their “conscience” or religious beliefs. It also protects them from any civil claim of action for doing so:
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person, including a business owner or employee thereof, shall be required to provide services, accommodations, advantages, facilities, goods, or privileges to an individual if the request is related to the solemnization, celebration, or promotion of a marriage and providing such services, accommodations, advantages, facilities, goods, or privileges would be a violation of the person’s conscience or religious faith.
A person’s refusal to provide services, accommodations, advantages, facilities, goods, or privileges in accordance with this section shall not create any civil claim or cause of action or result in any state action to penalize or withhold benefits from such person.
Given the bill doesn’t even specify “same-sex” marriage, it would hypothetically protect the right of “conscience” to discriminate against any kind of marriage, including interracial, binational, and interdenominational couples. For this reason, it’s likely this bill would be preempted by the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, among other nondiscrimination statutes.
The language in this measure mirrors similar “license to bully” exemptions that have been proposed in Michigan and Tennessee that would protect students from discipline if they expressed anti-gay views in school.
New Hampshire’s Republican-dominated legislature is also considering a bill that would repeal marriage equality despite the fact most New Hampshire voters support maintaining the law.
Filed under: New Hampshire
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Wow, set back much? What was the point of making other companies unable to discriminate, by law?
Oh how I am glad to be a Canadian
WTF??? Like a “whites only” or “blacks only” sign type thing?
Disgusting.
As I am Marc Boivin…..
Wow. I’m completely appalled by this
OMFG I’m moving to Canada! Take like fifteen steps back in Civil Rights why don’t you!
So let me get this straight, you are making a bill to protect there religious belief, even though there is suppose to be a separation of church and state, but when it comes to my belief that means nothing. hmmm, also what happened to freedom and justice for all.
Wow! So not okay on all levels! Disgusting!
You get what you vote for.
And to think I was born and raised there. UGH! Grow up people.
Well then, it’s time to boycott those businesses, if you can, if there’s an alternative same service business in the area. Kinda like the poor trying to boycott Walmart, OK, spend the rest of your paycheck on the better, yet way more expensive options. I thought a business/company’s function was to fill a need, not fill the company owner’s pocket, while stripping the consumers paycheck from them with no care for their well being. Ya gotta lurv Capitalism, don’tcha? :P
So is that to be added to the signs that say “No shoes, No shirt, No service”? Businesses already have this option, as a business owner I could refuse providing goods or services to you just because I don’t like you, and not get in trouble for it. To me I think they are wasting their time in even considering this law. Isn’t there anything else they have on their plates they could be voting on like better police protection or handgun control or something?
Plus let’s not forget that these types of laws are a double edge sword. Just as much as they could refuse to services the LGBT community that means the LGBT community could refuse them as well.
That’s some straight up bullshit.
absolute crap
More like a license to be IGNORANT
Thts just ignorant.
When I was a child here in the State of Florida on the hotels on South Beach they had nice brass plates on the entry doors before you walked in and said Gentile Only or White Only, this is is all beginning to sound like deja vu to me but the terrible thing now is they want to the licening of this in the Name of God.
What about the “conscience” and the “religious beliefs” of racists? Who believe that African-Americans are lower animals and that serving them should be “optional” for private business owners? Are they going to legalize that, too? How about a restaurant hanging a sign, “No Jews”? Is that going to be legal? Same thing.
Society is going to contiue to go backwards. I thought we were supposed to advance as a race? I live in a small town and there is STILL racism and closed-mindedness. Makes you want to scream “WAKE UP PEOPLE ITS 2012, NOT 1913!”
When will everybody realize that what makes all people the same is so much more important than what makes us different. I just don’t understand the bigots who discriminate against gays. As if homosexuals aren’t human beings too. As if they’re not someone’s son, or daughter, or sister, or brother, or father, or mother, or friend. All people want to live in peace, we all feel love, we all want the best for our loved ones, we all have hopes and dreams, we can all feel pain, we all want to follow our bliss, we all struggle, we’re all just trying to get through life the best way we know how. How does any of that change with the color of someone’s skin, or their physical abilities, or what God they pray to, or what language they speak, or what their sexual orientation is? If a man loves and wants to marry another man, or a woman loves and wants to marry another woman, what is that to anyone else? They’re not hurting anyone. Only a truly vicious, hateful, spiteful, selfish, vile misanthrope would begrudge someone their love of someone else. People who hate homosexuals should be ashamed of themselves. Those bigots deserve to live in the shadows. They’re not fit to show their faces in decent society. And it is patently unfair that gays and their families should suffer the devastating effects of discrimination, while bigots and their loved ones go along untouched. It’s past time that the bigots are made to pay for their discrimination BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY. Let the bigots and their loved ones start suffering and maybe they’ll learn their lesson. Anyone coming into contact with Maggie Gallagher or Bryan Brown, other members of NOM, members of the Family Research Council, or other hate organizations, the members of the New Hampshire House or Senate that oppose equality, or their loved ones, should take ANY ACTION POSSIBLE to make them pay a price.
I wish people who suggest these things had the capacity see past there nose and see the world has changed. What purpose does an archaic view of society benefit anyone. Some people are gay, get over it!
WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!!
What knuckle dragging, slope headed, narrow minded, hate filled, bigoted, moron thought of this? What an un-American slap in the face to democracy!
wow thats terrible, I’m glad to be british right now
All this bill says is that companies should not have to make special accomodations for people based off their marital status. Just because youre gay, straight, or bisexual it doesn’t mean you should be entitled to a position at a firm and this bill eliminates that. While you people think its retroactive to the gay bisexual lesbian movement its is actually the opposite. Its forcing businesses to look at people based off their abilities and not have to worry about sexual orientation at all or feel obligated to hire someone in fear that they might file suit for discrimination. Everyone relax..
Shouldn’t we be worried about other things? It is no wonder that nothing is ever accomplished in congress when it is this shit that we are contemplating. Please, please learn from history and move ahead not backwards…..UGH!!!
So I have a question for you all. Should a soldier be forced to torture a captive? Murder non-combatants? Simply because their commmanding officer gives the order, a legally binding order? Or are they allowed to refuse such an order on the basis of their conscience?
It is amazing to read the narrow-minded, “progressive” comments here and see what all Indies and those on the Right know: Progressives are as bigoted and repressive as those they castigate. The bill is poorly written and needs modified for clarity, but the right of people to decline to marry couples based on their conscience must be maintained.
Live free or die??
That same soldier CAN indeed deny based on his conscience. Then they are usually charged with insubordination. That charge would not stand if it were found that their commanding officer initiated an order in error (killing a non-combatant, etc). Insubordination would hold as a charge if the commanding order was valid. Similarly, a private business owner can deny services to any patron based on their conscience ….if that person were causing a great ruckus in their place of business, inflicting property damage pr behaving belligerently, then the owner is within rights. But if the person were just BEING as they are, the owner would be operating with discriminatory practices. Before you run around calling progressives narrow-sighted, remember that your eights end where your nose ends and someone else’s begins, and remember that accepting a human regardless of sex, creed, color, or sexual preference is hardly something for the narrow minded.
I am so in disbelief about a bill that discriminates -OUR Legislature is WASTING their precious time on such a petty bill– this is the year 2012 what BIAS are we going to make inequality of women in the country– !!!! a Bill about NEXT — Knit pickey crap– thats what it is all about–Stupidity — LIVE FREE OR DIE– the customer no matter who- has the right to decide if they want to purchase products or services– who is going to find out if the customer is GAY OR NOT– a Questionnaire before they enter– !!!!!! HOW about a BILL on the issues of
There is already an exemption for religious organizations, this would be for private, capital driven buisnesses…Yes the same ones that years ago had signs stating White Only or No Irish Allowed…
it about fucking time that a state stood up against gays and lesbians! Man should be with woman and a woman with a man. No it’s not like the “whites” and “blacks”. it’s about what’s right and what’s SOSOSOSO wrong! I congratulate whoever came up with that bill. Being against gays and lesbians IS the right thing to do. No body that I know would hire a man or woman that is gay or lesbian. Kudos New Hampshire! Congrats for taking a stand!
First of all! Marriage is an act of LOVE. Murder is an act of HATE. You can’t compare the two. So your beginning statements are just plain stupid.
Second of all! Church and State are supposed to be separate. Also, it baffles me when people use their religious beliefs to discriminate against others. Christians are supposed to be accepting and non-judgmental (because it is not our job to judge, everyone will “have to answer to God”). People are always claiming to be Christians and RARELY do I see them act very Christ like.
Nikki, Thank God that all Americans don’t think and believe the way you do. What if one of your family were to admit they were gay/lesbian? Would you hate them and deny them as your family? I’m a straight woman, but I believe it is not our place to judge ANYONE for what they think, believe or how they choose to live their lives, that right belongs to God and GOD ONLY! Americans like you give the rest of us Americans out here a bad name and personally I am sad for your intolerance and ignorance in todays world. You are as bad as the whites that thought they were so much better than the blacks back in the days of slavery and segregation, I am a white American woman and I respect others beliefs and lifestyles because as the bible tells us “let he who is without sin cast the first stone” So you might want to think about taking a long hard look at yourself and your life before you go around judging others. I think the bill is disgustive discrimination all the way around and they should be ashamed of themselves!
Re: nikki. SERIOUSLY? What rock did you crawl out from under?
Nikki – I am sorry for you. It must be awful to live such an ignorant life.
This bill is complete BS. What happened to separation of church and state? This bill has us going so far backwards it’s ridiculous. What’s next? A holocaust for any type of marriage that isn’t traditional? So services can be provided to a same race, heterosexual married couple in which the husband beats the wife and she is scared to death of him, but not to a happy, healty, interracial or same sex married couple? Disgraceful New Hampshire, and disgraceful America. I am also sorry for the ignorant people who developed this bill, and for those voting in favor of it.
All I can say to nasty nikki is that it seems to me the only people who would and should hire her and all the sad people she knows who apparently think like her would be a new Nazi party. Please God let the world be protected from those like them who would support another Holocaust. Heaven help us from such ignorance and vitriol.
Nikki if you read the proposed legislation it is very broad in nature. That means that they could chose to decline services to anyone including you! Would you like for someone to discriminate against you for being a female? Probably not!
This bill ENFORCES and PROTECTS the right of separation of Church and State. The government has no right to force any religious community to do anything that goes against their core beliefs. Just like religions do not have the right to force people to goto Church on Sundays. Separation of Church and state works both ways. As far as private businesses one could always boycott and hopefully put them out of business. But do I have the right to sue a kosher deli because they refuse to sell me a cheeseburger (they sell burgers and have cheese)? Should the government be allowed to force them to sell cheeseburgers on their menu?
Why is anyone suprised? Look at the candidates running for President.They want to take away birth control and choice.I think we are coming into a real scary time. Being Jewish and remembering my Grandmother’s stories this bill just makes me cringe.
Nikki, you need to try licking one. I know you’ll like it…. You will definitely change your views on this.
The people who do NOT want this bill passed should scare you, as a Jewish person. They want to force religious communities to go against their core beliefs. Where does it stop! As an Orthodox Jew, should I get arrested and forced to wear the Star of David because my beliefs are different from yours and I want to practice my religion?
they r ass holes
You really have got to be sh*ting me! The part that says they want to stop pupils being punished if they discrimnate against gays??? While i was still in school i saw a bunch of teenage boys abusing a gay man i was so angry i screamed abuse at them, they were quite shocked to be shouted at by a 5 ft 13 year old. discrimination is the root of all evil bar none! This doesnt happen as much in the uk
smith, why are you reading LGBTQ news, you should be watching fixed news you’d be more at home, something you can relate to. You’re either a closeted gay or not comfortable with your sexuality, which is it?
You’re a closeted dyke nikki, quit trying to pretend you’re straight. If you were drowning I’d throw you cement block and say: “float on this bitch.”
Fortunately, (although I’m from England) I do not believe all Americans have this incredibly narrow minded archaic view of how people should be. It’s just unfortunate that it is a selected few in the religious extreme that seem to believe bullying people into their views of society is the best way to run it. The day when this country sorts out it’s Human and Civil Rights without any if or buts inserted because of frankly… totally irrelevant information… then it will be on the right path. What is so horrifically shocking that two people fall in love… and then oh gosh!! They want to get married, they just happen to be gay.Where is the relevance of that? Two people fall in love, get married end of story. I hope one day that with over 7 billion people in the world, these extremists will realise they should expect diversity and not try and squish everyone in their little ideal box of what this world should be.
I hope the legislation DOES pass in NH!!! I happen to be straight, but I’ll hang rainbow flags on every friggin’ inch of my business…Maybe I’ll even hire some Trannies to wait tables!!!