On June 26, 2015, the Obama administration won a landmark victory at the Supreme Court that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. The LGBTQ community and its allies celebrated after countless years of fighting for same-sex marriage to be a legal right. But not everybody was prepared for legal oppression perpetrated by various state governments that have been passing bills commonly known as religious liberty bills.

The purpose behind these bills is to allow companies to refuse services to people based on religious principles, meaning employees or employers are granted the right to deny service to a gay couple if they do not agree with their lifestyle. In general, these bills outrage those on left while many of those on the right are applauding the politicians who pass them into law. Last year, lawmakers in Georgia, in particular, went as far as to propose a bill that would allow adoption agencies to refuse adopted by same-sex couples.

People who support these laws say they allow them to exercise their religious principles. I strongly believe in people practicing their own religion. But laws allowing for open discrimination against the LGBTQ community is not only hypocritical for the way it hurts the rights of the secular while protecting the freedom of only the religious but it also creates problems that can be disastrous.

When you operate a business, the only way your business can survive is by, obviously, making money. And the money you earn is from the customers who come to support your business.

For instance, let's say you run a restaurant and two men come in requesting to be seated. You suspect these men are gay and, basing your belief that being gay is a sin based on the bible, you deny their request because you don't believe in serving people who live in "sinful" lifestyle.

By denying service to these men, you're throwing your money out the window. And not just your money, but others' as well. If your servers had provided good service to the couple, they would have a good chance at earning a tip, and servers generally make their living off tips. But your employees are not making money to support themselves because you denied the people who were going to pay for your services. These discriminatory laws not only hurt the rights of the LGBT community, but they are cause potential damage to the economy. Fewer people getting services means less money getting made, and this can cause your business to suffer.

The separation of church and state was created for a reason, it prohibits people from establishing laws based on religious principles, allowing people of both the religious and the secular to exercise their rights without interfering with the other. By passing these laws, they are only violating that. Are people really supposed to be denied food, groceries, homes, or other essential services because you don't agree with their lifestyle?

There is a major difference between supporting one's lifestyle and supporting the person. Providing service for a gay couple is not supporting their lifestyle in any means. That's why I think Republicans need to think twice before passing these laws and hurting the rights of people outside of the Christian community.