Some conservatives urging right not to serve gays on religious grounds (Washington Post)

Conservative lawmakers in states nationwide are pushing to expand the right of individuals and businesses not to provide certain services to same-sex couples on religious grounds.

In North Carolina, for example, a state legislator has proposed allowing government workers to recuse themselves from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples even though such unions are now legal. A bill in Texas would permit voters to amend the state constitution in a way that supporters say would enhance religious liberty but critics warn would harm the civil rights of gays and others.

A legislative fight is underway in Michigan, where the state House recently passed a set of contentious religious liberties bills, including some that would allow adoption agencies to refuse placements that violate their faith.

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Scott Hochberg (D), a former state legislator who wrote the state’s original Religious Freedom Act, said it would go further than shoring up current law, changing it so that religious liberties would supercede civil rights protections.

Hochberg said he is convinced that the effort is motivated by anti-gay sentiment. “But rather than go at it directly, they’re trying to cover that with the use of religion, which I think is a pretty cynical use of someone’s sincerely held beliefs,” he said.

Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/some-conservatives-urging-right-not-to-serve-gays-on-religious-grounds/2014/12/17/e16fae34-84a7-11e4-b9b7-b8632ae73d25_story.html?wprss=rss_homepage