Gay-rights activists took to the Kansas State Capitol in Topeka on Thursday to protest a bill that would allow landlords, employers and business owners to discriminate against people who violate their religious beliefs.
The Wichita Eagle reports that nearly 100 protestors came to speak out against SB 142, a.k.a. the Kansas Preservation of Religious Freedom Act. “It is legislative abuse, it is legislative bullying and it is legislative dictatorship and it should not be permitted,” said Kansas Equality Coalition’s Pedro Irigonegaray.
But bill sponsor Rep. Lance Kinzer (R-Olathe)—who previously fought to keep Kansas’ sodomy laws on the books even after Lawrence v. Texas—told the Eagle the protestors were wrong about SB 142. “We want to make sure that people of religious faith in Kansas are not subject to laws that discriminate against them based upon their exercising the right to practice their faith.”
Translation: We want to make sure we can treat LGBT people like second-class citizens and then wrap ourselves in the First Amendment if anyone complains.
The bill—which would ban religious discrimination based on gender, race or ethnicity but not sexual orientation or gender presentation—passed the House 91-33 and now heads to the Senate for debate and a possible vote.
Photo: Aviper2k7
SadlyNoRainbowsInKansas
My spouse and I live in Kansas (unfortunately), we are the state that outlawed the teaching of evolution in our Public School state curriculum a few years back (that was reversed a few years later)…we are the state that spawned Fred Phelps (who by the way was also a friend of Al Gore and invited to the White House for Bill Clinton’s inauguration — look it up)…we are also the state that sent a teenage boy to prison for 17years for having sex with another teenage boy — the Limon case– fortunately, the US Supreme Court demanded state judicial review after Lawrence v. Texas and the sentence was reversed. Furthermore, we are a state where Doctors who deliver reproductive choice services to woman can be expected to enjoy a short life-span (Dr. George Tiller murdered by an anti-choice fanatic in Wichita, Kansas 2009).
Oh Kansas, somewhere over the rainbow — where it ends not in OZ, but in a primordial bog.
Hyhybt
Kansas must have something going for it. If the politicians are that far behind the times, the state must have the gorgeous landscape of Tennessee to make up for it, right?
Tammy
how the hell did I end up living in the not so great state of brownbackistan.I’ve lived in a lot of places and have never run into as many ignorant people as I have here. Kansas is is an embarrassment, a low place. And, yeah, it doesn’t even have a Tennessee landscape a b
a beach, the culture of San Francisco or New York, or even decent education. All they
care about is basketball with a mythical bird as the mascot. There’s a lot of creepy
snakes tho.
Lifer
Oh KS, i know you’re not going to hear me, but I feel like it must be said once again:
1) Wanting to deny someone housing, happiness (to marry if one wishes), you know basic freedoms, is an act of judgment, not faith. Judgment is the Lord’s (as in not for you to carry out on your fellow man)
2) the unbeliever (someone who formerly was a believer, but now denies the faith) is the one you cast out, & even then it’s only from your religious society, not civil society as a whole
3) All others the aliens/non-believers (those not a part of your group, those without knowledge of your God, particularly those who do no harm to you) are to be treated with special consideration in the old & new T. So, your act of faith would be an out poring of fruits of the spirit like kindness.
4) Christian believers are responsible for how they live their own lived, not for the world around them lives.
5) Stop trying to make this world your home (heaven). It’s not. If it were, you would be Jehovah Witnesses.
Valeria Mariscal
This is rediculous!! Outraging!!! This is America,realy?Wow! We need alot to improve:( Unfortunately,america is still a place where the LGBT and the Hispanic/Latina community is a 2nd class citizen,but we must fight back.Here in AZ gay marriage is illegal and guess what now there’re passing a law where if they see a person that looks Hispanic the police will have the right to pull you over or get into your home.It’s patetic.when is Transphobic,Homophobic and racism is going to stop!!
Bipolar Bear
It’s ironic that the rights movements of the last four decades are now being used against us by religions. They genuinely seem to see themselves as a persecuted minority that needs protecting, and perhaps they’re right – about the minority part.
We no longer need religion to tell us the difference between right and wrong, and that’s what probably terrifies them most: http://bipolarbear.co.nz/2011/08/25/the-moral-landscape-sam-harris/