At first, advocates wondered if it wasn’t a mistake. South Dakota’s Senate Bill 124 aimed to give churches leeway to operate during the pandemic, but it contained four lines that, in advocates’ generous reading, were vague, too broad, or perhaps just poorly written. In another interpretation, those same lines were a revival of language used to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people.
If passed, SB 124 would allow churches to hold indoor services despite COVID-19 restrictions. The bill states that the government would not be able to “substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion” without “compelling government interest.” That language echoed the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act, also known as RFRA, a federal law passed 27 years ago. The law, once intended to protect minority religions and Indigenous people, has since been copied by state legislatures and used to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people and people trying to access reproductive health care, advocates said. Vivian Topping, Director of Advocacy and Civic Engagement at the Equality Federation, a coalition of state level LGBTQ rights organizations said “I don’t believe in accidents during legislative session. There’s always someone behind something somewhere.” There are at least 36 RFRA-type bills that have been filed in state legislatures since January, 25 of them tucked into bills intended to allow churches to operate during the pandemic. The spate of RFRA bills seems to underscore a larger trend: Topping has counted at least 184 anti-LGBTQ+ measures filed in state legislatures this year. That tally, however, does not entirely reflect all of the RFRAs woven into COVID church bills. Topping said “This session is one of the worst that I’ve seen. We’re seeing [anti-LGBTQ+] bills moving faster than we expected them to, we’re seeing them pop-up more.” This will be a key focus of this week's Equality Act. The fight of Anti-descrimination vs religious freedom.
At least 36 anti-LGBTQ religious freedom measures are in COVID church bills
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