According to the resolution, “The City of Biloxi does not sanction or tolerate discrimination against its citizens or visitors and seeks to preserve and protect the rights of all individuals regardless of religion or identity”.
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Several states and cities have prohibited state-funded, nonessential travel to MS in response to the state’s passage of a law that offers legal protection to individuals and institutions to decline services to LGBT people based on religious conviction.
“It does, however, protect the religious freedom of certain business-owners who provide wedding-related services, without in any way infringing upon the right to same-sex marriage”. Personal beliefs that don’t fit a fervent religious lifestyle are the target.
HB 1523 had strong support in the legislature, with the bill passing 80-39 in the House of Representatives and in the Senate with a vote of 32-17.
“This isn’t just the South; the effort to exclude and separate is happening everywhere”, York said. The state is the subject of much backlash from major companies, including PayPal, which pulled plans for an office in the state that would have employed 400 people. She spoke to CNN on Wednesday after leaving North Carolina. I think we need to remember that we are more similar than we are different.
In late March, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signed legislation that allows campus religious groups to restrict membership to students that follow a religion. However, Democrat Rep. Rufus Straughter said he disagrees. He said his order would protect all Kansans without creating “protected classes”. Now, after enacting a law that will allow some private businesses to deny service to gay, bisexual and transgender people based on the religious beliefs of the business people, the state steps into the spotlight again – and steps back.
But gay rights groups and businesses have decried it as discriminatory. MGM Resorts International, Nissan, Toyota and Tyson Foods are among the corporations that have denounced the legislation.
Democratic state Attorney General Jim Hood said he’ll make “case-by-case” decisions on whether to defend the lawsuits, warning that the bill doesn’t override federal law or constitutional rights.
That’s not Graham’s only supportive tweet. The North Carolina law prevents specific anti-discrimination rules for gay and transgender people for public accommodations and restroom use. It bans individuals from using public bathrooms that do not correspond to their biological sex. Opponents say it allows discrimination. The spitting rage we see from the media is because some of those deeply held beliefs go against the sacred laws of Political Correctness: namely, the belief that marriage is between one man and one woman.
Executives of five more companies have signed a letter calling on Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant and Republican legislative leaders to repeal an incoming state law. Among the big players who signed: Apple, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Pfizer and Marriott. Though they insist it was an unfortunate filing error, it seemed as if the Magnolia State had been holding its breath hoping the rest of the country would come to its senses before embracing the once odd idea that black people and other minorities have rights it is obliged to respect.
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“This is open season on LGBT groups”, Cochran said.
