NC Lawmakers Want Hospitals To Be Able To Turn Away Gay Patients“Every day we hear about anoth

NC Lawmakers Want Hospitals To Be Able To Turn Away Gay Patients“Every day we hear about another state trying to enact legislation to allow citizens to discriminate against LGBT people.Now it’s North Carolina’s turn, as the Legislature is considering House Bill 348, the  Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which was introduced on Tuesday. (An identical bill, SB 550 was introduced in the state Senate on Thursday.)The measure declares that the state “shall not burden a person’s right to exercise of religion, even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability,” and would allow individuals, businesses and organizations to ignore laws that violate their religious beliefs—including current or future anti-discrimination laws.LGBT advocates say the bill’s definition of “exercise of religion” is criminally vague—it “includes, but is not limited to, the ability to act or refuse to act in a manner substantially motivated by one’s sincerely held religious beliefs, whether or not the exercise is compulsory or central to a larger system of religious belief.”If signed, the law would allow LGBT Carolinians to be turned away or fired by shops, restaurants, hotels, schools and even hospitals.Pharmacists in the Tar Heel State could refuse to dispense contraceptives, infertility drugs, HIV treatments and transplant-rejection drugs—as all are incompatible with various religious denominations.“Nobody wants to see this,” said Chris Sgro of Equality NC. “You’ve got a handful of legislators that are pushing this on the state of North Carolina.”Sgro says the people of his state “believe overwhelmingly in protections for LGBT and other people against discrimination,” but Rep. Paul “Skip” Stam (R-Wake), who sponsored the bill, disagrees.“It’s the first freedom. It’s what a lot of people came to North Carolina for originally, was to have religious freedom, at that time from the Church of England,” Stam said.Another pending measure, Senate Bill 2, would exempt magistrates and clerks from performing or assisting in same-sex marriages. It passed the NC Senate in February and is currently being discussed in a House committee.”Read the full piece hereBut it doesn’t matter what party you vote for, right? WRONG.  The Republican War on Women and War on LGBTQIA+ won’t stop until WE STOP IT. Honestly, did you expect to be reading headlines like this in 2015 in the U.S.? Gay people turned away from HOSPITALS?!?U.S. readers, register to vote here: http://www.vote411.org -- source link

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