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Idaho House takes ‘thoughtful pause’ on bill to allow religious discrimination
BOISE, Idaho — While a similar billed sailed through the Kansas state House on Wednesday, Idaho lawmakers sidetracked a bill that would have allowed businesses to refuse service to gay customers based on their religious beliefs.
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Idaho House panel advances bill to allow religion-based discrimination
BOISE, Idaho — Idaho’s Capitol on Wednesday was again the focus of frustration among gay rights activists as lawmakers kept alive a bill that Republican religious conservatives argue is necessary to protect businesses from being forced to serve customers whose lifestyles offend their faith traditions.
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Ariz. House panel OKs bill allowing discrimination based on religious beliefs
PHOENIX — An Arizona House panel on Tuesday approved changes to a proposed law beefing up protections for businesses that assert their religious beliefs in refusing service to gays and others, but the changes didn’t placate critics who call the bill a way to allow discrimination.
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Idaho launches ‘pre-emptive’ strike to shield religious beliefs from gay rights
BOISE, Idaho — Idaho lawmakers and conservative Christian allies who contend faith is under siege by gays, lesbians and the government are launching a “pre-emptive” strike to bolster rights of licensed professionals to refuse service or employment to those they conclude violate their religious beliefs.
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The ugly collusion between ‘religious faith’ and bigotry
There is an ugly collusion between religious belief and bigotry which we don’t talk about, and it didn’t begin with the LGBT community. It wasn’t that long ago when religious belief and faith was used to justify slavery, segregation, and anti-Semitism. Sadly, the LGBT community seems to be the last bastion where it is okay to justify demonizing people under the guise of “adhering to one’s faith.” … Folks who do these things always seem to think that they own the word “Christianity” and everyone else is beholden to their interpretation.
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Bullied, gay student suspended after tearing pages from personal Bible
RICHLAND HILLS, Texas — The American Humanist Association, an atheist rights advocacy organization, has sent a complaint letter to a Texas school district, claiming that administrators violated a student’s First Amendment rights when they suspended him for tearing Bible pages in school.
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‘Religious Freedom’ bill an effort ‘to reincarnate the Defense of Marriage Act’
WASHINGTON — A group of lawmakers on Thursday introduced legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives to “prohibit discrimination through the federal tax code” against individuals or institutions that exercise religious conscience regarding marriage as between one man and one woman.
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Gay rights vs. religious rights: Religion News Service counters NALT Project
Having lived through the civil rights struggle in the American South and having seen many fine, upstanding white Christians refuse to sell houses to people solely because of the color of their skin, refuse service to people in restaurants solely because of the pigmentation of the people in question — all the while quoting the bible and standing on their “religious” rights — I couldn’t have less patience with these spurious arguments that cake-selling and flower-vending are a matter of religious faith…
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Christian principles not the motivator for the gutless who mask bigotry as ‘religious freedom’
Standing up for Christian principles in general is obviously not the motivator for denying marriage equality to gays and lesbians … taking a stance against LGBT people is. Even with the most outlandishly anti-gay interpretation of the Bible, not one Bible verse implies that it is wrong to provide services for two people standing up to articulate their love and promises toward each other. Not one. In fact, there are many references that support doing so: the commandment to love one’s neighbor as one’s self; the commitment and love declared by David and Jonathan; the golden rule…
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NOM co-founder to head U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom
WASHINGTON — Robert George, the co-founder and driving force behind the National Organization For Marriage, has been appointed Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.