Today, Kentucky’s Republican-controlled Senate approved a “license to discriminate” bill that would give businesses in the state a license to discriminate against patrons based on their sexuality and/or gender identity.
A report in The Advocate states the bill’s author, Republican Sen. Albert Robinson, contends the proposal is not discriminatory but rather necessary to protect people of faith from LGBT people who “are trying to force their beliefs down the throats” of those who act upon their religious convictions.
If passed, the report continues, the legislation would amend the state’s 2013 Religious Freedom Restoration Act to assure that it applies to providers of goods and services to the public, putting their work under the “protected activities” clause of the law. Anyone acting on a “sincerely held religious belief” would be protected from “being fined, imprisoned, held in contempt, or otherwise punished” for acting in accordance with those beliefs.
The bill now moves on to the House.
