US LGBTQ Civil Rights At Risk

This is a week that will go down in LGBTQ civil rights history. First we have the Supreme Court of the United States refusing to take up Pidgeon v. Turner which allows discrimination against our LGBTQ community by erasing spousal benefits, including health care, for legally married LGBTQ couples in the state of Texas. Then we’re headed back to the Supreme Court today for oral arguments in the case of Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission in which the Sessions’ Department of Justice is scheduled to speak in support of a Colorado baker who denied to serve an LGBTQ couple. Sarah Kate Ellis, President & CEO of GLAAD stated, “The Department of Justice will pretend that this case is not about discrimination as they argue in front of the Supreme Court today, but that could not be further from the truth. While freedom of religion is paramount to our nation’s success, it does not give anyone the right to impose their beliefs on others, to harm others, or to discriminate. There is no sugar-coating the blatant & ugly agenda to discriminate against LGBTQ people at the core of this case, which is about seeking religious exemptions from non-discrimination laws for the singular purpose of refusing service to people simply because who they are.” Rea Carey, Executive Director of the National LGBTQ Task Force concluded, “This case has the potential to roll us back more than a half-century to a time when LGBTQ people were in the closet, afraid to be ourselves. We refuse to return to those ugly days.”
For More Info: etaskforce.org
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