Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback today issued Executive Order 15-05, “Preservation and Protection of Religious Freedom,” protecting the religious freedom of Kansas clergy and religious organizations.
EO 15-05 prohibits state government from taking any discriminatory action against any “individual clergy or religious leader,” or any “religious organization” that chooses not to participate in a marriage that is inconsistent with its sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman.
Gov. Brownback issued the following statement upon signing the Executive Order, “We have a duty to govern and to govern in accordance with the Constitution as it has been determined by the Supreme Court decision. We also recognize that religious liberty is at the heart of who we are as Kansans and Americans, and should be protected.
The Human Rights Campaign denounced Gov. Sam Brownback’s executive order stating it encouraged blatant discrimination against LGBT Kansans in the name of religion.
“Religious freedom is a bedrock of our country. Gov. Brownback’s executive order panders to the false notion that clergy and religious organizations will be stripped of their First Amendment rights,” said HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow. “Having nothing to do with religious freedom and everything to do with enabling discrimination, this executive order is divisive, unnecessary, and sends the wrong message. It places legally married same-sex couples at risk of having religious organizations, such as many hospitals, refuse to recognize their marriage while hampering the state government’s ability to address the problem. ”
In February, Gov. Brownback also astonishingly rescinded an executive order signed by former Governor Kathleen Sebelius in 2007 that provided workplace non-discrimination protections to LGBT state employees.
According to BuzzFeed News, under Gov. Brownback’s failed leadership, the state is still also failing to recognize legal same-sex marriages for the purposes of tax considerations.
