I am not going to lie, I'm taking a big chance by putting this out in the open, but I have to get this off of my chest...
Have any of you heard of FADA? If
you have, you know that it is the First Amendment Defense Act. If you haven't, I
will try to give you the clif-notes version below, for it has popped up again
in the news, given the very real concerns that it could actually become fruition.
But first, let me say one point:
You can roll your eyes, tell me to
shut up in your head or to my face, tell me to suck it up, to calm down, to
move on, unfriend me, tell me that my candidate lost-get over it, tell me what
I am doing/saying it isn’t going to change anything, tell me that it isn't
going to be that bad-give ‘em a chance, tell me it isn't your fault for you
didn't vote for him, tell me that I have it so much better off then those
before me, tell me I am being ungrateful, tell me that these things just can’t
happen given the political makeup of our country, tell me to stop my political
posts, and tell me that I’m overreacting: Know that moving forward, this is my
FIGHT SONG right here! I am going to FIGHT as hard as I can to help educate,
highlight, and fight against the injustices that are going to occur in the
incoming administration, in any way possible.
Back to the clif-notes of what FADA is.
FADA is essentially a religious
freedom act, but stronger and scarier, with far more reaching ramifications
then just the LGBTQ community. Section 2
of H.R. 2802 states that “Leading legal scholars concur that conflicts between
same-sex marriage and religious liberty are real and should be legislatively
addressed---- Protecting religious freedom from Government intrusion is a Government
interest of the highest order.” (https://www.congress.gov/114/bills/hr2802/BILLS-114hr2802ih.pdf)
Furthermore, it states that the way to
protect these freedoms, is to not allow Federal actions to occur that would ‘slap
the hand’ of those who are doing the discrimination for they are basing it on their
religion. “The Federal Government shall not take any discriminatory action
against a person, wholly or partially on the basis that such person believes or
acts in accordance with a religious belief or moral conviction that marriage is
or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, or that sexual
relations are properly reserved to such a marriage.” (https://www.congress.gov/114/bills/hr2802/BILLS-114hr2802ih.pdf)
The issue at hand here is that FADA will give EVERYONE (businesses, corporations,
employers, city/county/state/federal offices, individuals) the right to discriminate
towards anyone they know or may suspect as LGBTQ (and even unmarried heterosexual
couples), by saying that it is “against one’s religion” whether it is the
truth or not. It will give them the right to deny someone acceptance into
higher education institutions, the right to fire them, the right to not hire
them, the right to deny spousal benefits, the right to deny hospital visits,
the right to deny any service that they may be providing; ranging from wedding
cakes to dog grooming, the right to deny health care coverage and lifesaving
medicine to them, among a hundred other things that can openly be discriminated
against. Heck, even as most of us can’t stand the IRS come the beginning of the
year, “a persuasive analysis by the American Civil Liberties Union concludes
that the bill would allow federal employees with objections to same-sex
marriage to refuse to process tax returns or Social Security checks for gay
couples.” (http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-religious-liberty-20150721-story.html)
To top it all off, regardless if you live in a State with a non-discrimination
statute or not, this Bill will basically “circumvent critical federal
protections and allow blatant discrimination” (http://www.hrc.org/blog/so-called-first-amendment-defense-act-would-roll-back-critical-protections),
as well as State protections by, for the lack of a better word given our
current state of affairs, “trumping” them.
FADA has been sitting in the House
Ways and Means committee for over a year since the Obergefell ruling that
granted Same-Sex couples the right to marry, with no real push by the
Representatives that introduced it, for they knew it wasn't going to pass with
a Democratic President who has supported minority rights, if it was able to get
through both houses. It has been sitting, percolating, waiting for a majority
to accept it, and move it forward. That majority will now be in control of most
of the branches of the Federal Government (except SCOTUS for the time being)
and there is little doubt it will pass, unless a sustainable filibuster occurs.
Think Wendy Davis and her almost 13 filibuster attempt over the Texas Abortion
bill, or the House sit-in, drawing attention to gun control.
If you think that we (and by saying
'we' I mean us in the LGBTQ community and the many others out there scared of
the new reality we find ourselves in) are overreacting and saying to me in your
head; “Didn’t you hear that The President-Elect stated that he won't take away your
marriage rights in that 60-minutes interview?” Bills like H.R 2802 have a real possibility
of getting passed and circumventing ways to take every Federal right away that my
wife and I (among countless other married same-sex couples) have today, through
discrimination, except for the piece of paper that states we are married.
Our political landscape and the
laws that govern us are about to change drastically, like no one has ever seen.
If you haven’t taken (and still don't want to yet) a step back to look at the
bigger picture of how many legal issues are of a concern right now for so many
people (this is just one subset of them, trust me), it will be hard to comprehend
why a large majority of us are legitimately worried about what the future
holds.
In the end, I am NOT against your religion and it isn’t that I am not religious myself. What you do
in the private space of your house/life/social circles and how you spend your time
is your realm, and I respect that, and I would hope that would be reciprocal. I’m
not trying to ‘shove’ my life into yours, I simply want to draw attention to
the fact that where we are today isn't normal and we can’t normalize it. We can’t
calm down and hope for the best-that went out the window last week. We need to fight with whatever tools we have. Discrimination
is Discrimination and no matter how you slice it, it will not further the
greater good of the people and this country. So get sick of me now and do what
you need to, in order to avoid me, for I’m not going to stop, this hits too
close to home…Heck, THIS ONE HITS HOME.
~J
If you want some more info on H.R. 2802, check out the following articles: http://time.com/money/4569950/lgbt-rights-workplace-trump/
