LGBTQ Advocates Fear “Religious Freedom” Bills
NPR’s Laura Sydell reports, “There are renewed efforts at the state level to pass so-called religious freedom bills. LGBTQ rights advocates believe that’s because local lawmakers are anticipating support from the Trump administration.” The Alabama State Senate is fast-tracking a bill called the Child Placing Agency Inclusion Act that allows religiously affiliated adoption agencies to reject same-sex couples. Sarah Warbelow, the legal director for the Human Rights Campaign, said, “A number of states have introduced bills for many years that would allow child welfare agencies to discriminate on the basis of religious belief, but since this particular executive order draft leaked out, we’ve seen a number of states really begin the process of moving those bills.”