(AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis). Any employer or school could refuse to allow a transgender person to use the bathroom of their choice.
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The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest LGBT rights group, condemned the governor’s move and promised to work for repeal of the law.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has banned all state-funded non-essential travel to MS after the Southern state passed a religious freedom bill that has been called discriminatory against gays and lesbians.
The law swept both the Mississippi House of Representatives and the Senate before Bryant signed it into law.
The measure allows churches, religious charities and privately held businesses to decline services to people whose lifestyles violate their religious beliefs.
Proponents of the bill hailed it as necessary to defend religious liberty in the state. North Carolina enacted a law, while governors in Georgia and South Dakota vetoed proposals. The law is slated to take effect on July 1.
In Mississippi, a spokeswoman for Nissan (NSANY) said the automaker’s statement from last week in opposition to HB 1523 “still stands”.
Asked whether gays could be refused service at a restaurant or hotel, Mr. Bryant said, “Never”.
Some individual companies were more pointed, though.
The measures are part of a wave of state-level legislation being pushed by social conservatives, with some efforts intensifying after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling previous year that legalized same-sex marriage.
Attorney General Jim Hood says in a statement that House Bill 1523 does not override federal law or constitutional rights. Here’s just a sampling of some of the provisions in the law. Under the law, individual, businesses and religious non-profits could deny services to LGBT people in the name of religious freedom.
The new measure ensures that the state government will protect those who believe that marriage is between a man and a woman, that sexual relations should be reserved for marriage, and that gender identity is based on anatomy at birth.
Mike Cashion, executive director of the Mississippi Hospitality & Restaurant Association, said the group did not take a position on the bill because some members strongly supported it and some were in strong opposition. This means that anyone who provides wedding services can refuse a gay couple’s business without the risk of legal action.
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He said the new law “merely reinforces” existing religious freedom rights, “does not limit any constitutionally protected rights or actions” and does not challenge federal law.
