Lawmakers and conservative Christians in Idaho are under siege by LGBT rights activists after the government has planned preemptive measures that will allow licensed professionals to refuse services and employment to those that violate their religious beliefs.
On January 28, Boise Republican Lynn Luker chalked out a plan to protect religious people from the fear of having their professional licenses revoked if they refused to offer their services to members of the LGBT community. While he does not have a single example of a professional’s license being revoked in Idaho, Luker fears that gays and lesbians in the state will soon start to sue professionals on such grounds, especially since the LGBT individuals have been doing so in other parts of the United States.
“This is pre-emptive. The issue is coming, whether it's 10 years, or 15 years, or two years,” said Luker.
Among the cases that Luker cited while tabling his proposal are a Portland bakery’s refusal to bake a cake for a same-sex couple’s marriage and a New Mexico photographer’s refusal to take photographs of a gay couple’s commitment ceremony, after which both states revoked licenses of the professionals. Unlike both these states, Idaho’s Human Rights Act includes no protection for gays and lesbians and Republican lawmakers have already rejected efforts to add them.
Luker has found support from the Cornerstone Family Council advocacy group that insists on Idaho taking measures to ensure nobody can challenge whether license-holders must provide services to those who violate their religious beliefs. Julie Lynde, executive director, Cornerstone Family Council, believes that governments are increasingly interpreting laws to block people from living out their faith.
“The free expression of religious freedom is no longer understood for what it was intended. There's a double standard against people of traditional religious faiths,” she said.
The Idaho Bureau of Occupational Licenses oversees 29 boards that sanction licenses to professionals that Luker’s measure aims to secure. In addition, it extends security to doctors, nurses, firefighters, teachers and police officers as well. If adopted, none of these professionals can have their licenses revoked by a government agency for “declining to provide or participate in providing any service that violates the person’s sincerely held religious beliefs.” However, the bill does not include the interests of emergency personnel, who would have to continue providing services to all.
Boise Democrat John Gannon, worries that a doctor who completes his degree with the help of the taxpayer’s money, through an existing Idaho program aimed at supporting medical professionals, could eventually refuse to treat a taxpayer because he or she happens to belong to the LGBT community.
Luker, who is a lawyer by profession, said his bill secures those who have individual licenses and would not hinder the process of an employee being fired if he or she violates the employer’s policies.
Clearly, the bill has many loopholes and legal experts along with gays and lesbians in Idaho are working to challenge it.
