Tuesday, February 07, 2017

Taxpaying lgbts shouldn't sacrifice rights to 'religious liberty' propaganda

Religious liberty argument shouldn't override the fact that lgbts also pay taxes.

The homophobic hate group American Family Association is alarmed that Trump has yet to sign an anti-lgbt "religious liberty" executive order. The organization, via email, is asking its supporters to sign a petition asking Trump to do so.

It is partly as follows:

Liberals and homosexual activists are advancing their radical agenda by attempting to torpedo President Donald Trump's executive order on religious liberty that was recently leaked to the media. This is an excellent executive order that will protect your First Amendment rights.

I urge you to sign the AFA petition NOW asking President Trump to protect religious freedom for all Americans. I plan to personally deliver this petition with signatures during a meeting with the Trump Administration. Help me take your voice to the White House!

This is urgent! After the executive order was leaked, radical activists demanded that the White House keep in place the policy implemented by President Obama’s executive order. The Obama policy bans federal contractors from funding if they refuse to change their non-discrimination policies to include homosexuals and “transgender” persons.

If Christians remain silent and do not let President Trump know they stand with him on religious liberty, then the only voices he will hear are those of radical homosexual activists.

  . . .  The religious freedom executive order under consideration by the Trump Administration:
  • Protects Christian colleges and universities, which maintain biblical views on sexuality, marriage, and gender, from losing federal funds.
  • Follows the long standing Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) that states religious exercise "includes all aspects of religious observance and practice."
  • Instructs all federal agencies, "to the greatest extent practicable and permitted by law," to reasonably accommodate the religion of federal employees, as required by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
  • Instructs the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury to grant relief to the Little Sisters of the Poor and others that are not exempt from the Obamacare contraception mandate.
  • Instructs the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure the federal government does not discriminate against the religious beliefs of child-welfare providers such as foster care and adoption services.
  • Instructs all federal agencies to provide protections and exemptions consistent with the Civil Rights Act and Americans with Disabilities Act to religious organizations that either contract with or receive grants from the federal government.
  • Instructs the U.S. Treasury not to revoke the non-profit tax status because a religious organization's ordinary religious speech deals with politics, or because they speak or act on the belief that marriage is the union of husband and wife, that sex is based on immutable biology, or that life begins at conception.

I'm not even going to refute these bullets one at a time because they can all be handled with a question, which unfortunately, has not been asked enough.

Just what gives organizations and entities the right to take tax monies while discriminating against taxpayers? What gives federal employees, whose salaries come from tax dollars, the right to discriminate against taxpayers? That is the one point we have to make time and time because religious right organizations have not answered the question. In fact, it has been my observation that they avoid the question.

The last time I checked, lgbts pay taxes. We work hard for our money, which we give a portion to the government as loyal Americans.  But AFA and the rest of the religious right feel that certain entities, as well as federal employees, have a right to help themselves to our money while refusing us service and without acknowledging the fact that we are taxpayers or even human beings.

That's not a healthy relationship. That's a prostitute/pimp relationship. 

The sad thing is that this notion wouldn't fly if one substituted the Jewish community, the African-American community, or any other community for lgbts. No one feels that entities or federal employees have a right to tax dollars while simultaneously practicing racial, ethnic, or religious discrimination.

So why is it okay to take tax dollars while practicing discrimination in terms of sexual orientation? It's a good question which organizations like AFA won't answer it because we aren't asking it.

At the very least, the hypocrisy of  "religious liberty" should be addressed. If an entity feels that serving lgbts or even treating lgbts like regular taxpayers is a sin, then why is it okay to take lgbt money?


Related post - Leaked draft of anti-lgbt 'religious freedom' executive order is an explosive piece of discrimination

2 comments:

Unknown said...

The thing is, I think this really is just a step to justifying denying services to the other groups you describe. I've listened to these people talk enough, and they frequently bring up how unjust it was for the civil rights groups to force people to serve blacks, and other groups. I think we are shortsighted if we don't consider their attacks on our community and on Muslims to just be a first step in a larger plan.

Damien said...

Excellently written.