Obama’s Order Against Antigay Discrimination Revives a Familiar Religious Freedom Fight

President Barack Obama speaks during the Democratic National Committee LGBT Gala at Gotham Hall on June 17 in New York (Photograph by Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

June 18, 2014
By Josh Eidelson

After five years of hedging and rebuffing, the White House announced this week it would make good on a campaign promise with an executive order banning discrimination by federal contractors on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. But now lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transexual advocates who have long agitated for just such a move are warning the president not to undermine it by exempting religious groups.

A broad exemption, warns Lambda Legal senior counsel Jennifer Pizer, could “set a very damaging precedent.” Not only would it “permit discrimination,” she says, “it would be a broad message to the public that discrimination against LGBT people is not deserving of the same robust prohibition that is in place with respect to other kinds of discrimination.”

On the other side, however, are strong forces pushing for just such an exemption. Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah urged in an e-mailed statement that any order “must include the same religious protections” in the Senate-passed Employment Non-Discrimination Act, so that “one of our nation’s fundamental freedoms—religious freedom—is still upheld.”

Asked about the potential for a religious exemption, a White House official said there were no details available yet on the executive order’s specifics.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-18/obamas-anti-gay-discrimination-order-revives-a-familar-religious-freedom-fight