GOP lawmaker: Gay people “don’t have a right to be served in every single store”Ok
GOP lawmaker: Gay people “don’t have a right to be served in every single store”Oklahoma’s Joseph Silk defends anti-LGBT “license to discriminate” legislation“As the country marches toward nationwide marriage equality and polls show record levels of support for same-sex marriage, there’s a fierce anti-gay backlash underway that imperils some of the most basic rights of the country’s LGBT citizens: Under the guise of protecting religious liberty, conservative lawmakers across the country are proposing bills that would allow businesses and individuals not to serve gay people, provided that they discriminate based on their religious beliefs. Among the states to consider such license-to-discriminate legislation is Oklahoma, where the bill’s chief Republican sponsor flatly states that gay people “don’t have a right to be served in every single store.”State Sen. Joseph Silk made that statement in an interview with the New York Times, which examines the broader push for so-called religious freedom laws in a story published online Thursday. Silk told the Times that he while he knows real, breathing homosexuals and even considers some his friends, he nevertheless sees gay people as the top threat to religious liberty. “The L.G.B.T. movement is the main thing, the primary thing that’s going to be challenging religious liberties and the freedom to live out religious convictions,” Silk said. “And I say that sensitively, because I have homosexual friends.”“They don’t have a right to be served in every single store,” he added. “People need to have the ability to refuse service if its violates their religious convictions.”Read the full piece hereU.S. readers, register to vote here: http://www.vote411.org. This way you’ll be qualified to vote these bigots and hatemongers out the next chance you get. -- source link
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