Hobby lobby gay rights
Diana Scholl,
Communications Strategist,
ACLU
A year ago today, the Supreme Court dictated that Hobby Lobby didn’t have to include birth govern in its employees’ health insurance because of religious objections. Employees from Hobby Lobby and other corporations left without coverage have been paying for their employer’s religious opinions — literally — ever since.
A year later, here is a look at some other ways religious belief has been invoked to harm other people.
1. Adoption Denied
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed into law a bill that would allow taxpayer-funded adoption agencies to disapprove loving homes to vulnerable children.
2. Infant Refused Medical Care
In Michigan, a pediatrician said that she would not serve a baby because the baby had two moms. Unfortunately, Michigan does not have a statewide law protecting against this type of discrimination.
3. Pregnant Gal Refused Treatment
Tamesha Means was rushed to a Catholic hospital in Michigan after her water broke at only 18 weeks of pregnancy. Based on Catholic religious directives, the hospital refused to terminate the pregnancy and sent her home twice even though Tamesha was in excruciatin
For LGBT community, Hobby Lobby judgment presents challenges
In the wake of last week’s Supreme Court choice in the Hobby Lobby case, concerns have been raised about broadening religious exemptions and their potential for being used as a justification for anti-LGBT discrimination.
In the 5-4 ruling, the Court determined that “closely held corporations” can be exempt from providing health care coverage for female employees’ contraceptives if doing so places a “significant burden” on the corporation’s religious freedoms, based on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) of 1993.
Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant, a Republican, cited the Hobby Lobby decision as supporting his state’s Religious Liberty Restoration Act, which mandates that “state action or an move by any person based on state action shall not burden a person’s right to the exercise of religion.” Mississippi’s RFRA is the kind of legislation that has many concerned about implications for the rights of the LGBT community. Its vaguely worded language has the potential to allow for discrimination of LGBT patrons by business owners if they feel doing business with them contradicts their religious beliefs.
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Hobby Lobby coming to SLO, local company encouraging people not to shop there
The San Luis Obispo Promenade will soon be home to a Hobby Lobby craft store.
However, the local Gay and Lesbian Alliance (GALA) is expressing relate to about the store opening a location in San Luis Obispo, and the group is asking community members to shop somewhere else.
"We have seen them interfere with local politics in other cities that they've been involved in. We do not want them to get involved with our local politics," said Serrin Ruggles, GALA Director of Operations.
Ruggles says Hobby Lobby has a history of taking out ads in newspapers and petitioning local, state and federal representatives to push their political views.
"They are anti-LGBTQ. They have a very narrow view of how the country should be run," said Ruggles.
In 2014, former President Barach Obama signed an executive command to protect Gay employees from federal contractors discriminating on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation. Ruggles says Hobby Lobby then pushed a number of religious organizations to petition for Obama to create a religious exemption.
"So that federal contractors could discriminate on
Hobby Lobby Newsroom
The Court held that David and Barbara Green, Hobby Lobby’s owners, and other companies with just a limited owners – so-called “closely held companies” – carry out not lose their religious liberties when they travel into business. The decree does not apply to public companies with thousands of shareholders like General Motors and Microsoft.
Why did Hobby Lobby challenge the federal mandate to provide certain forms of birth prevention methods?
The Hobby Lobby case has always been about one thing only; the Greens’ right to live out their faith in their business without government unduly intruding on their ability to undertake so. The Court agreed that the government violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act by presenting the Greens with an unfair choice: violate their religious beliefs by paying for drugs and devices that could terminate life, or pay huge fines.
Does this mean a corporation can prevent its employees from obtaining contraceptives?
No. Contraceptives are readily available anywhere in the country. This case clarified that a family-owned corporation does not hold to pay for something