If the Religious Freedom Restoration Act makes it through the state Senate, private business owners could discriminate against individuals, including homosexuals, based upon a “sincerely held religious belief.”
The bill, HB83, passed the House of Representatives on a 36-23 vote earlier in the legislative session. It was introduced and sponsored by Representative Nathan Winters, a pastor from Thermopolis. Representatives in the House and gay rights organizations across the country have voiced disapproval for the bill.
“To me its just an unnecessary bill,” Representative Mary Thorne said, “I’m comfortable with relying on the constitution to protect my religious freedom.”
Students at the university have also taken issue with it.
“I think it’s a step back as far as equality goes,” Garret Zans, an electrical engineering student said. “It goes against the integrity we have as people of Wyoming.”
On a 24-6 vote, Senate File 115, a bill that protects gender and sexual identity from discrimination, passed the Senate on Tuesday. It seeks protection for the classes that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act intends to permit discrimination against. Zans worked with senators to craft SF115.
“Pretty much every state surrounding us has passed it,” Zans said.
Legislation protecting gender and sexual identity has become a hot issue for state legislatures, since earlier this year when various district and circuit courts struck down bans on gay marriage as unconstitutional.
With long-time gay marriage bans struck down, media outlets have reported on its community effects, raising questions as to whether or not private business owners should be forced into doing business with individuals that they may see as immoral.
A particularly notorious case took place in March of 2013, when an Oregon bakery refused to bake a cake for a gay couple, and was found by Oregon’s administrative judge to have discriminated against the couple.
“I’m not going to say you can’t have cake,” Mark Preus, a pastor at St. Andrews Lutheran Church, said.
Preus said he finds the law to be too broad, but at the same time, he feels that there needs to be some level of protection afforded to private businesses.
“I think that the Supreme Court would strike it down,” Preus said, “A limited amount of conscientious and moral discrimination should be allowed for the sake of religious freedom.”
Likening it to the concept of a wartime conscientious objector, Preus said that he feels that individuals should not be forced to compromise their religious beliefs, but that Christians should show love in the face of hatred.
“True Christians suffer for their beliefs,” Preus said, “I’d show them every other courtesy and love.”
Despite the religious assurances that accompany the bill, Zans still fears that if made law, the implementation of the bill could have negative effects for Wyoming.
“The student population tends to have the highest rate of diversity,” Zans said. “In Laramie, it definitely has the possibility to negatively impact life.”
Laramie downtown businesses. Religious Freedom Bill
