LGBT Group Pulls ENDA Support After Hobby Lobby Ruling

FILE- In this June 26, 2013 file photo, gay rights advocate Vin Testa waves a rainbow flag in front of the Supreme Court in Washington. On June 26, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a pair of landmark rulings, one ... FILE- In this June 26, 2013 file photo, gay rights advocate Vin Testa waves a rainbow flag in front of the Supreme Court in Washington. On June 26, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a pair of landmark rulings, one striking down a law that denied federal recognition to same-sex marriages and the other clearing the way for gay couples to wed legally in California. In the 12 months since the Supreme Court issued a pair of landmark rulings on same-sex marriage, the ripple effects of those rulings have transformed the national debate over marriage, prompting many people on both sides to conclude that its spread nationwide is inevitable. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) MORE LESS
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The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force pulled its support for a Senate bill to protect LGBT people in the workplace, citing concerns over the legislation’s broad religious exemption following the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling, the Washington Post reported.

The group fears that the exemption in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act as it is now could be used by companies to object to the law the same way Hobby Lobby successfully objected to parts of the health care law’s contraception mandate.

Basically, the the current bill could still allow companies to fire gay people by simply citing religious beliefs, according to the group’s executive director, Rea Carey.

“If a private company can take its own religious beliefs and say you can’t have access to certain health-care, it’s a hop, skip and a jump to an interpretation that a private company could have religious beliefs that LGBT people are not equal or somehow go against their beliefs and therefore fire them,” Carey told the Post. “We disagree with that trend. The implications ofHobby Lobby are becoming clear.”

The Senate passed ENDA last November, but the bill stalled in the House, as Republicans didn’t believe the religious exemption was broad enough.

Carey told the Post that the Task Force will also push President Obama not to include a broad religious exemption in his executive order to ban discrimination against LGBT people by federal contractors.

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  1. What a fucking mess this Scotus has wrought

  2. “but the bill stalled in the House” is AutoText.

  3. SCOTUS, more like SCROTUS.

  4. They’ve really stepped in it this time. I wonder if an entire Court’s decisions can be firmly and permanently vacated if we find out they’ve been completely compromised? Could we look back on 2014 and just say fuck it, you guys erase everything and start over?

    With new guys, of course. I think the old guys are mostly broken all to hell at this point.

  5. Guys, hell. Imagine an all-female Supreme Court!

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