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Utah state Senate to hear Mormon-backed LGBT anti-discrimination bill

Utah state Senate to hear Mormon-backed LGBT anti-discrimination bill
Utah
Elder L. Tom Perry, left, of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Quorum of the Twelve Apostles shakes hands with Equality Utah executive director Troy Williams after Utah lawmakers introduced a landmark anti-discrimination bill that protects LGBT individuals while also carving out protections for the Boy Scouts of America and religious groups during a news conference at the Utah State Capitol Wednesday, March 4, 2015, in Salt Lake City. Rick Bowmer, AP

SALT LAKE CITY — More than 20 years ago, Troy Williams was a young Mormon missionary who didn’t know how he would reconcile his sexual orientation with his faith when he came home to live in conservative Utah.

“I was just scared. As a gay Utahn, I couldn’t imagine for myself a positive future,” said Williams, now 45 and an outspoken advocate for gay rights.

House committee advances alternate bill that excludes phrases ‘sexual orientation,’ ‘gender identity’

Associated Press

Hours after Utah senators unveiled comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation that earned the approval of the Mormon Church and LGBT rights advocates, lawmakers in the House decided to move forward with an alternative proposal.

The House Judiciary Committee voted 6-5 on Wednesday to continue consideration of an anti-discrimination proposal introduced by Draper Republican Rep. LaVar Christensen. Christensen chairs the committee and cast the tie-breaking vote that kept his bill on the table.

Christensen said Wednesday that his bill addresses similar issues to the Senate legislation and called the sponsors of that measure “like-minded.”

But the language in his bill allows more latitude to actions by religious individuals, which proved to be a sticking point in the Wednesday evening hearing.

Several Republicans joined Salt Lake City Democrat Rep. Brian King in voting against Christensen’s proposal. They took issue with language they said would allow discriminatory acts in the name of religion, and said they’d prefer to see lawmakers focus on the Senate proposal.

Gayle Ruzicka, president of the conservative family-values group Utah Eagle Forum, told lawmakers that she supported Christensen’s bill because of its strong protection for the religious liberty of individuals, which she said is missing from the Senate version.

It does not include the phrases “sexual orientation” or “gender identity,” as the Senate proposal does. Instead, it uses the term “sex-related interests,” which Christensen said was designed to cover as many circumstances as possible.

As a young man, Williams said he never would have envisioned a scene like the one that unfolded at Utah’s state Capitol on Wednesday, where state lawmakers, Mormon church leaders and LGBT advocates joined together to back a landmark proposal that bars discrimination against gay and transgender individuals while protecting the rights of religious groups and individuals.

“This is a historic day,” said Williams, the executive director of Equality Utah. “People from diverse backgrounds have come together to craft what no one thought was possible.”

The measure has a rare stamp of approval from the Mormon church and stands a high chance of passing in Utah, where the church is based and many state lawmakers and the Republican governor are members of the faith. The bill gets its first hearing Thursday morning.

State Sen. Stuart Adams, a Republican who led negotiations on the proposal, said at the news conference Wednesday that they’ve found a way to respect the rights of some while not infringing on the rights of others.

“If Utah can do this, my opinion, it can be done anywhere else in the nation,” Adams said.

The proposal prohibits discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation when it comes to housing or employment. Religious groups and organizations would be exempt from the requirement, as would Boy Scouts of America, which has a ban on gay adult Scout leaders and has close ties to the LDS Church.

The church said Wednesday it is fully behind the legislation, which follows the principles set out in the faith’s recent nationwide call for laws that balance both religious rights and LGBT protections.

“In this approach, we acknowledged that neither side or no party may get all they want,” D. Todd Christofferson, a member of the church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said. “It is better if both sides get most of what is desired than to have a winner-take-all where one side loses.”

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Utah
Elder D. Todd Christofferson, left, and Elder L. Tom Perry, center, of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Quorum of the Twelve Apostles talk with each other as Sen. Jim Dabakis, D-Salt Lake City, speaks after Utah lawmakers introduced a landmark anti-discrimination bill that protects LGBT individuals while also carving out protections for the Boy Scouts of America and religious groups during a news conference at the Utah State Capitol Wednesday, March 4, 2015, in Salt Lake City. Rick Bowmer, AP

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LGBT activists have spent years pushing for a statewide non-discrimination law in Utah, but their efforts were fast-tracked this year after the Mormon church issued its call for this type of legislation.

Sen. Steve Urquhart, a St. George Republican who co-sponsored the bill, said the Boy Scouts were not involved in negotiations on the Utah proposal and did not request the exemption. He said the organization was included because of a 2000 U.S. Supreme Court decision recognizing the organization’s constitutional right to exclude gay members.

The Boy Scouts now allow openly gay youth.

Boy Scouts of America national spokesman Deron Smith said the organization didn’t have any comment on the legislation. Utah Boy Scouts leaders deferred comment to the national organization.

Scouts for Equality, an organization critical of the Scouts’ ban on gay leaders, criticized the exemption.

“The fundamental principle of non-discrimination means that there aren’t special exemptions,” Scouts for Equality executive director Zach Wahls said in a statement. “Non-discrimination means ‘non-discrimination,’ not ‘non-discrimination except for the Boy Scouts.'”

The compromise also attracted criticism from some conservatives.

“It’s heavy on protection for special classes of people that I don’t believe should be a special class, but it’s very light on religious protections,” Gayle Ruzicka, president of the conservative family-values group Utah Eagle Forum.

Ruzicka said the proposal needed more protections for religious individuals to act in accordance with their beliefs.

Beyond banning discrimination based on identity and sexual orientation, the proposal stipulates that employers can adopt “reasonable dress and grooming standards” and “reasonable rules and polices” for sex-specific restrooms and other facilities, as long as those standards also include accommodations for gender identity.

It protects the right of an individual employee to express their religious or moral beliefs in “a reasonable, non-disruptive or non-harassing way,” as long as it doesn’t interfere with the company’s business. It likewise bars employers from punishing someone who expresses those beliefs, as long as they don’t hurt business.

The Mormon campaign pushing for these types of laws is the latest example of a shift in tone by the LDS Church. While it has moved away from harsh rhetoric and is preaching compassion and acceptance, the church insists it is making no changes in doctrine and still believes that sex is against the law of God unless it’s within a marriage between a man and a woman.

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