Don't Amend Hate Legislation; Kill It

I have all the respect in the world for Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. KFTC is by far the most effective and successful progressive organization in the state and if it weren't for them we would all be in dire straits.

But on this, KFTC is dead wrong.

A law that could subvert Kentucky's current civil rights protections passed the Kentucky House, 82-7, on Friday. According to the Kentucky Fairness Campaign, House Bill 279 appears, on the surface, to be a simple iteration of an individual's religious freedom. However, the bill is written so broadly that it could allow for challenges to existing anti-discrimination laws in Covington, Lexington, Louisville and Vicco protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals from employment, housing, and public accommodations discrimination.

In an editorial this morning, the Lexington Herald-Leader wrote: “The bill could make it harder to pursue criminal prosecutions and civil remedies in everything from child abuse to housing discrimination when a religious defense is invoked.”

Rep. Darryl Owens proposed a simple House floor amendment to make sure that the law "does not establish or eliminate a defense to a civil action or criminal prosecution under a federal or state civil rights law or local civil rights ordinance," but that effort failed. That amendment must be adopted in the Senate!

I get their strategy: the bill is speeding into law and nothing can stop it.  The best we can do is make it slightly less horrific.

Bullshit. This bill is a blatant violation of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause.  It is NOT a "religious liberty" bill; it is a religious coercion bill.

Your religious liberty ends where my liberty from your religion begins, and that means you don't get to decide which laws - laws passed for the good of the entire community, not just your hateful freakazoid ass - you have to obey.

Shame on KFTC for meekly begging the senate to adopt an amendment instead of forcefully demanding that elected officials defend the separation of church and state clauses in both the U.S. and the Kentucky constitutions. For shame.