With a Republican ruled Senate, House, and White House, there is sure to be more talks about the "First Amendment Defense Act". Bills have been popping up across the country from Indiana to Georgia to Mississippi in the past few years. Ted Cruz, former Republican Presidential Nomination Candidate, and Mike Lee, Republican Senator of Utah, have indicated that they plan on introducing it to the house. So what exactly could the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA) look like at the national level?
Based on the bill that was introduced in 2015, the bill would prohibit the federal government from punishing or discriminating against any business that discriminates against LGBT people. Businesses and other entities would be allowed to discriminate based upon two items. "(1) marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, or (2) sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage." Therefore, the bill only allows discrimination against same-sex married couple's, right?
Wrong! The wording in FADA is very broad and vague. For example, it is vague enough to allow the refusal of service to let's say a man and a woman who have slept together outside of wedlock. Could this really become a law? With a Republican House and Senate, and Donald Trump in the White House, it definitely could. The hardest part about putting this law into action is the Supreme Court. With Justice Anthony Kennedy (the most often swing vote) having written the majority opinion in the case that legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states, this law hopefully will not get passed the Supreme Court, but it isn't a guarantee that this or a version like it won't slip past at some point during Trump's four years in the White House.
What would this bill look like for the LGBTQ community? Well, it would allow religious universities or businesses to discriminate against those represented on their payroll, and who they serve. I am lucky to have never had to experience this, I know that a whole race had to experience this during the 60's and even before then. How have we continually made so much progress to all too quickly now having people try to throw it away? That is because Republican politicians continue to not accept that gay people should be treated just like straight people. They don't believe that transgender people should be treated just like cisgendered people. It is okay not to understand it or even agree with it. Just accept it, and treat us like everyone else.
The Merriam-Webster's dictionary definition of marriage is, "an intimate or close union." None of the definitions use any variation of the phrasing "between a man and a woman," because the word "marriage" has evolved to mean more than just "a man and a woman." This law would be a step backward, it would be a devaluation of LGBTQ people. The previous version of the law even uses the derivatives of the word "discrimination," but it isn't about discriminating against the LGBTQ community. It is about the federal government discriminating against the companies that refuse to serve LGBTQ couples.
Hopefully, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee just crumple this bill up and throw it in the recycling bin because that is quite simply where it belongs.
