If you thought Mississippi’s sweeping anti-LGBT measure was just about targeting people on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, think again. Though it was clearly designed to protect religiously motivated discrimination against lesbian, gay, and transgender individuals, Columbia Law School scholars found it also allows religious objections to be invoked in defense of a wide range of discriminatory acts. Mike McPhate reports:
Among the scenarios described in the report, which was signed by 10 law professors:
• A school mental health counselor could refuse to work with a transgender student
• A government agency manager could require female employees to wear skirts or dresses
• A religious university could fire a single mother working in the cafeteria
In each case, the acting group or individual would only need to profess adherence to any of three religious beliefs specified in the bill: that marriage is between a man and a woman, that sex is reserved for heterosexual marriage, or that gender is determined at birth as male or female.
For some reason Republican Gov. Phil Bryant and GOP House Speaker Philip Gunn didn't return phone calls from the New York Times reporter who wrote the story. Odd.
The LGBT advocacy group Lambda Legal also did an exhaustive review of the law and reached similar conclusions: "The law seeks to allow individuals, private businesses, medical and social services agencies, licensed health professionals, schools, foster and adoptive parents, and even some government actors, to discriminate against LGBT people, including children, and sexually active, unmarried non-LGBT people in wide variety of ways based on these beliefs." You can get more specifics here.