Posts Tagged ‘Religious Exemptions’
Why This Queer Baptist Wants Religious Freedom, Too
Tomorrow is Religious Freedom Day, a day that celebrates the passage of Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Passed in 1786, this piece of legislation. As a queer Baptist, my faith is often trivialized by those who do not believe it is possible to be both queer and Christian. I also know that my Baptist tradition…
Read MoreDiscrimination Is Not Religious Freedom
As recently as January of 2014, the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) filed a complaint against Fontbonne Academy, a religious college prep school in Milton, MA, when the school fired Matt Barrett—after offering him employment at the school as Food Services Director. Matt Barrett was fired after he stated on a form that…
Read MoreWin for LGBT Equality: Court Says No To Religious Exemption
On January 14, 2016 a New York appeals court ruled that an upstate farm that rents out its premises for weddings illegally discriminated against a same-sex couple when it refused to host their wedding ceremony. The court rejected the farm’s claim that the owners’ religious beliefs exempted them from New York’s long-standing equality law. Melisa…
Read MoreCatholic School Fires Lesbian Who Is “Perfect Example Of Living A Religious Life”
A Catholic elementary school educator in the Philadelphia area has been fired because she legally married another woman in 2007. This first-known firing case since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized marriage equality across the nation has an unusual religious exemption twist to it. Philly.com reported that Nell Stetser, the principal of Waldron Mercy Academy in Merion, a Philadelphia suburb,…
Read MoreProposed North Carolina Law Is An Affront To Religious Liberty
On Monday the North Carolina Senate voted to override Governor McCrory’s veto of SB2, a bill that would authorize government officials across the state to refuse to perform marriages or even issue marriage licenses when they have a religious objection. As a pastor, I consider this bill an affront to both the dignity of all North Carolinians…
Read MoreCatholic University Open To Lawsuit Under New D.C. Non-Discrimination Law
The District of Columbia’s new law barring LGBT discrimination by religiously affiliated schools went into effect this week, opening the door for Catholic University of America students to challenge that school’s decade-long denial of an LGBT student group. D.C. City Council passed the Human Rights Amendment Act last year, which, in part, repealed an existing…
Read MoreDisciples of Christ’s 2017 Assembly Will Return To Indianapolis
The past couple of weeks have been quite a roller coaster, especially for Disciples and especially for Indiana, the state where our church has maintained our denominational offices since long before we called ourselves a denomination. Certainly you know the basics of the story. The state legislature passed and on March 26 the governor of…
Read MoreLiving Christ’s Love: Would Jesus Turn People Away?
I am a Christian. I believe in Jesus. I believe in doing our best to follow God’s word and make it an active part of our lives. I also believe that every human being should be treated with dignity, respect and love—no if’s, and’s or but’s about it! I am heavily dismayed when I hear…
Read MoreLiberating Religious Liberty
When I went to work in West Hollywood in the mid-1990s, one of my new co-workers took me on a tour of the neighborhood at lunchtime. A long-time gay activist, he knew the local history well. He pointed out a building down the street and told me about the removal of a sign that read,…
Read MoreChristians Care About Ending Discrimination
As the Faith Organizer for Equality Pennsylvania, I work with about 600 diverse clergy and over 1000 people of faith across the state of Pennsylvania who are working for equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. On May 20, 2014, we celebrated a new reality in Pennsylvania—marriage equality came to our state! There…
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