President Donald Trump is expected to sign a religious exemptions executive order this Thursday. Politico reports that Trump has invited conservative leaders to the White House on that day for what they expect will be the ceremonial signing of a long-awaited—and highly controversial—executive order on religious liberty.
Earlier this year, a leaked draft of this discriminatory order led to a national outcry from civil rights organizations and millions of LGBTQ supporters. Trump’s license-to-discriminate order, would allow hospitals, child welfare providers, and other taxpayer-funded entities to cite religion in denying services or discriminating against LGBTQ people and women.
According to the report, the signing would represent a major triumph for Vice President Mike Pence—whose push for religious-freedom legislation backfired mightily when he served as governor of Indiana—and his allies in the conservative movement.
“Donald Trump’s rumored unconstitutional action is nothing more than a license-to-discriminate order that puts millions of LGBTQ people at risk,” said Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign. “There is no religious freedom crisis in America today, but there is a crisis of hate and discrimination. At a time when two-thirds of all LGBTQ people report having experienced discrimination, Donald Trump is making the problem worse by giving legal cover to perpetrators. By even considering this discriminatory order he has broken his promise to be a president for all Americans.”
“The Constitution already protects the ability to exercise one’s religion,” said HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow. “What our Constitution does not permit is wielding religion as a weapon of discrimination against someone else, particularly with taxpayer funds.”
Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD issued the following statement, “If this possible executive order is similar to February’s draft, it would do nothing except give a national license to discriminate, and endanger LGBTQ people and their families. President Trump is trying to create an America where my children could be turned away if a pediatrician doesn’t accept my wife and I. Nothing could be more un-American.”
Already, more than 50 percent of Americans live in an area of the U.S. where LGBTQ people are at risk of being fired, evicted or denied services because of who they are — and two-thirds of LGBTQ people report having faced such discrimination in their lives. Trump’s executive order could exacerbate these hostile climates and lead to broad, devastating impacts for LGBTQ people.
Donald Trump’s license-to-discriminate order has reportedly been circulating within the White House and transition team since January and has been a longtime political priority of anti-LGBTQ organizations including the SPLC-designated hate group Family Research Council.
A preliminary analysis by HRC of Trump’s order leaked in January indicates that LGBTQ people and women will be at risk in the following:
- An LBT woman suffering from intimate partner violence could be refused screening and
counseling for domestic violence if a provider holds religious objections to same-sex
Relationships - Transgender women could be turned away when seeking preventative care — including cancer screenings and mammograms
- A Social Security Administration employee could refuse to accept or process spousal or survivor benefits paperwork for a surviving same-sex spouse
- A federal contractor could launch a cyber-bullying campaign against an LGBTQ organization for advocating on behalf of transgender people without losing the contract
- Agencies receiving federal funding, and even their individual staff members, could refuse to provide services to LGBTQ children in crisis, or to place adoptive or foster children with a same-sex couple simply because of their sexual orientation
