Source: House vote #258 on Maloney Amendment
Heritage Action Summary: The Maloney Amendment would ratify President Obama's 2014 executive order barring federal contractors from what it describes as "discrimination" on the basis of "sexual orientation and gender identity" in their private employment policies. In practice, it would have required federal contractors to grant biologically male employees who identify as women unfettered access to women's lockers, showers, and bathrooms.
Heritage Foundation recommendation to vote NO: (5/25/2016): Congress should not be elevating sexual orientation and gender identity as a protected class garnering special legal privileges, which is the intent of the Maloney Amendment. The Maloney Amendment constitutes bad policy that unnecessarily regulates businesses. It risks undoing longstanding protections in civil rights law and makes clear that the president's orders are not exempt from them.
ACLU recommendation to vote YES: (5/11/2016):
We see today claims to a right to discriminate--by refusing to provide services to LGBT people--based on religious objections. Claiming a right to discriminate in the name of religion is not new. In the 1960s, we saw objections to laws requiring integration in restaurants because of sincerely held beliefs that God wanted the races to be separate. We saw religiously affiliated universities refuse to admit students who engaged in interracial dating. In those cases, we recognized that requiring integration was not about violating religious liberty; it was about ensuring fairness. It's no different today.
Religious freedom in America means that we all have a right to our religious beliefs, but this does not give us the right to use our religion to impose those beliefs on others.
Headline: Don't elevate gender identity as a protected class
(Answer: A)
Headline 2: Religious objections to GLBT services same as 1960s racism
(Answer: C)
AmericansElect Quiz Question 7 on
Social Issues:
When you think about the rights of same-sex couples, which of the following is closest to your personal opinion?
A: Same-sex couples should not be allowed to marry or form any kind of civil union
B: Same-sex couples should be allowed to form civil unions, but not to marry in the traditional sense
C: Same-sex couples should be allowed to marry legally, with all the same rights as traditional marriages
D: Unsure
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