Trump Justice Department Grants Christofascists License to Discriminate

Tony Perkins, Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Victoria Cobb of The Family Foundation here in Virginia, and other leading hate merchants must be near orgasmic in the wake of Jeff Sessions' release of "guidance" regarding “Protections for Religious Liberty.”  The guidance will mean that far right Christians who cite alleged religious belief will be able to discriminate at will against others and that employers, including federal agencies must accommodate their bigotry.  While the LGBT community is not directly referenced, given the ongoing efforts of Christofascists to put themselves above non-discrimination laws and public accommodation laws, we will certainly be impacted.  But the scope of this license to discriminate is so broad that many others will be impacted as well: unmarried cohabitating couples, those using contraception, non-Christians, the religiously unaffiliated - the list goes on and on and one has to wonder when the Bible will be cited to justify racial discrimination.  

What must be remembered is that Trump - and Mike Pence, a right wing Christian lunatic himself - made it clear that he would do the Christofascists' bidding, yet many who claim to be friends of LGBT individuals voted for Trump anyways.  I feel as if I am surrounded by enemies.  "Friends" have smiled at me only to stab me and my community in the back.  A piece at Think Progress looks at the horrors Trump/Pence/Sessions are ushering in.  Here are excerpts:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued extensive guidance Friday morning regarding “Protections for Religious Liberty” throughout the federal government. The document scrupulously avoids mentioning the LGBTQ community by name but it is undeniably the latest in a string of actions targeting LGBTQ rights.

Among the 20 “key principles” in Sessions’ memo are several assurances that the government will not penalize religious organizations for their religious beliefs, including their hiring practices or other aspects of their religious practice. Principle 2 states, “The free exercise of religion includes the right to act or not to act in accordance with one’s religious beliefs,” and that reference to not acting is the exact argument that has been used in countless cases where businesses and organizations have refused to serve LGBTQ people because of their religious beliefs.

Other points reinforce this. For example, Principle 6 states, “Government may not exclude religious individuals or entities based on their religion,” and Principle 20 states, “Generally, the federal government may not condition federal grants or contracts on the religious organization altering its religious character, beliefs, or activities.” The language in these principles strongly resembles language used to protect child-care and adoption agencies from losing governmental grants if they refuse to serve same-sex couples.

The guidance also protects businesses that would discriminate against same-sex couples through its interpretation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). Principle 11 ensures that RFRA extends to businesses as well as individuals, consistent with the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling. Principles 13-15 then outline how RFRA could be used to justify discrimination:

• 13. A governmental action substantially burdens an exercise of religion under RFRA if it bans an aspect of an adherent’s religious observance or practice, compels an act inconsistent with that observance or practice, or substantially pressures the adherent to modify such observance or practice.

• 14. Under RFRA, any government action that would substantially burden religious freedom is held to an exceptionally demanding standard.

• 15. RFRA applies even where a religious adherent seeks an exemption from a requirement to confer benefits on third parties.

Principle 15 is a direct reference to the controversy regarding the state-level RFRA that Indiana passed — and then watered down after a massive backlash — in 2015. Previous RFRA laws referred only to protections citizens enjoy when the government was directly burdening their religious practice, but Indiana’s law [which Mike Pence signed into law surrounded by hate group leaders] was designed to offer “religious freedom” as a justification in cases between two citizens, thus protecting those who would discriminate because of their religious beliefs. Stipulating that RFRA applies to disputes related to conferring benefits to others is nothing short of the same license to discriminate from Indiana’s legislation.

The lengthy appendix of references reinforces this intention. In language borrowed almost directly from arguments the Department of Justice joined defending the bakery that refused to sell a wedding cake to a same-sex couple, Sessions explains, “A law that seeks to compel a private person’s speech or expression contrary to his or her religious beliefs implicates both the freedoms of speech and free exercise.”

In the context of the other principles in the document, this suggests there could be no repercussions, for example, for religiously affiliated universities that accept federal grants but refuse to accept LGBTQ students.

In addition to Session’s primary memo, he also sent a second memo outlining implementation of the first across the federal government. This means that all agencies will effectively have to run a “religious freedom” test on all of their actions, further cementing how it will negatively impact grants and litigation, among other things.

Sessions’ guidance is a follow-up to an executive order President Trump issued in May regarding “religious freedom.” That order, which was narrower than expected, focused on allowing religious organizations and leaders to engage in political speech without penalty and weakened the Obamacare contraception order. It also included, however, the vague instruction that, “In order to guide all agencies in complying with relevant Federal law, the Attorney General shall, as appropriate, issue guidance interpreting religious liberty protections in Federal law.” The DOJ’s new guidance is only the latest in a litany of actions the Trump administration — and particularly Sessions’ DOJ — has taken to undermine LGBTQ equality, including:

• Reversing a policy recognizing that transgender people are protected from employment discrimination.

• Arguing in court that firing an employee for being gay was justified.

• Arguing in court that a business refusing service to a same-sex couple was justified.

• Rescinding guidance protecting transgender students and replacing it with guidance that allows schools to discriminate against them.

• Instituting a ban on transgender people serving in the military.

• Working to roll back Obamacare’s rules protecting transgender people from discrimination in health care.

• Proposing massive cuts to HIV funding.

• Trying to cut questions that would identify LGBTQ people in various data collection efforts.

• Dropping out of the lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s anti-transgender law, HB2.

If "friends" who voted for Trump think this will not alter how I feel about them are delusional.  In future social events in our home, there will definitely be some who will no longer be welcome.  Likewise, I am not going to go to events hosted by those who voted for this ugliness.  As for the pleas of ignorance on the part of some that "they did not know," that will be no excuse for my rejection of them.  Their f*cking laziness  in not educating themselves on who/what they were voting for simply will not wash with me.  Yes, I am livid and I will not forgive and forget, especially if these individuals do not immediately contact their senators and members of Congress and demand that legislation be passed to reverse this hideous agenda.