Critics said the proposal was a “license to discriminate” that would hurt economic development by sending the message that Kentuckians don’t want to do business with people who are different from them. Anyone acting on a “sincerely held religious belief” would be protected from “being fined, imprisoned, held in contempt, or otherwise punished” for acting in accordance with those beliefs. “Shouldn’t their rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion be respected?” Republican Senators voting in opposition include Senator Carroll Gibson, Senator Alice Forgy Kerr, Senator Christian McDaniel, Senator Julie Raque Adams, and Senator Wil Schroder.
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The Senate debate featured a lively exchange between Robinson and Sen.
Kansas State University’s office of general counsel wrote previous year that the bill would protect a “religious student organization adhering to a religious belief that people of one race were inferior to the people of another race” and make universities vulnerable to lawsuits from such groups.
SB 180 says that no ordinance or public agency shall restrict the rights of people who provide “customized, artistic, expressive, creative, ministerial, or spiritual goods or services”. “The freedom of conscience has been long respected in America”.
The bill will now move to the Kentucky House.
Such legislation, Thomas said, encourages physical fights that the nation is now seeing in the race for president. “This bill is created to prevent that, and I can’t go along with that”.
Sen. Claire Ayer, D-Addison, the chair of the Health and Welfare Committee, called the bill “a reasonable way to address a reasonable need” that has support from hospitals and independent practices alike.
He said that he introduced SB 180 in response to a Lexington custom T-shirt shop getting sued for refusing to make shirts celebrating a gay pride event. But Fayette Circuit Judge James Ishmael overturned that decision, ruling there was no evidence the business refused the T-shirt order because of the sexuality of the would-be customers. The case is now on appeal.
“This is an incredibly disappointing day in the Kentucky Senate”, said Chris Hartman, director of the Fairness Campaign, a coalition of groups supportive of LGBT equality.
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Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, said he too was disappointed to learn over the interim that some health departments in Kentucky decided not to require a dirty needle for every clean needle they give out.
