Republicans inherently detest the idea of equal rights for all Americans, but their aversion to equality pales in comparison to the theocracy crowd the GOP depends on to stay in power.
It is a travesty that Democrats have to defend equal rights for all Americans by passing one piece of legislation after another. This is particularly true because enshrined in the Constitution is one amendment that plainly states “all persons … shall not be deprived of equal protection of the laws.”
Republicans, theocrats, misogynists, and racists cannot and will not ever accept that every person in America is equal and protected from the scum of the nation: theocrats, misogynists and racists.
The latest iteration of scumbags fighting desperately to deprive other Americans of their constitutionally-protected equal rights are Republicans protecting the dominance of their most dependable voting bloc – so-called people of faith.
At the moment there is a rash of contention and GOP opposition centered around H.R.5 (The Equality Act). The bill is necessary “To prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation, and for other purposes.”
The GOP and their religious masters oppose the House bill for prohibiting religious Americans from “depriving other Americans of their equal rights” as guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. Religious conservatives and their Republican lackeys oppose any prohibition against discrimination even though the Supreme Court ruled less than two years ago that LGBTQ+ people are protected against employment discrimination. However, their fierce opposition to H.R. 5 is founded on a part of the bill that disallows the so-called faithful from suing to gain judicial approval to legally discriminate against gay and transgender people.
That point was made very clear in an article penned by the public affairs director for Agudath Israel of America, Rabbi Avi Shafran.
Rabbi Shafran claims religious Americans feel threatened because:
“The White House, House of Representatives, and effectively, the Senate are all controlled by Democrats.”
He goes on the assert that “the Equality Act confirms their fears by undermining religious rights and portrays time-honored religious beliefs as un-American.”
Shafran says no people of faith want to discriminate against gay or transgender people, but they demand the right to go to court to earn the legal right to discriminate against gay and transgender people. He also claims that “religious people need a means of challenging any government requirement that they feel impinges on their religious rights.” Shafran wrote regarding the Equality Act:
“It would override the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which gives people a way to challenge government requirements that they feel impinge on their religious rights. The religious freedom act was needed because of a Supreme Court ruling in 1990 that said First Amendment protections for religion couldn’t be invoked to challenge a law if the law itself wasn’t intended to specifically target religion (e.g., a measure like the Equality Act).”
The rabbi also stated:
“No religious American of goodwill wants to see gay or transgender people threatened in any way. But millions of religious Americans of goodwill have deep, faith-based convictions about marriage and sexual identity, including, for example, that marriage is a holy commitment made by a man and woman to each other before God and that the Creator bestowed DNA and morphology as the only arbiters of gender identity. By vilifying those ideas, the Equality Act would vilify all who hold them to be true.
Indeed, contrary to how it is often portrayed, the Equality Act wouldn’t simply amend the Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The Equality Act would go a step further — and herein lies the radical rub — by cutting off avenues of appeal for any penalties imposed under the act.”
To summarize the holy man’s remarks, religious people don’t want to discriminate against gay or transgender people, they just want to be exempted from penalties for discriminating against gay or transgender people.
Look, no equal rights law targets religion or people of faith and if the people of faith weren’t inherently bigoted there would be no need for an equal rights law in the first place.
If the faithful want to be bigots in their homes, their churches, mosques, temples, or synagogues that is their right. Let them be as bigoted as their black hearts desire. They can even pray their vile hearts out that their god of love, or their personal savior JesusChrist, will comfort and bless them for being nasty bigots. The United States Constitution gives them that right to exercise their religion without intervention from anyone.
However, they cannot violate the Constitution and deprive any other American’s equal protection of the law; which is the one thing they desire more than the legal right to summarily execute anyone who fails to comply with their religious beliefs.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn't look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
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