Anti LGBT Laws

Recently many Americans have been feeling as if their right for religious freedom has been limited, mostly based off of factors relating to the LGBT community. In order to help these citizens feel as if they are able to practice their religious freedom, a large amount of states have been attempting to pass bills, most of which involve LGBT rights. In 29 states, more than 100 bills have been filed in relation to LGBT citizens and their basic rights including marriage and adoption.
“Hearing about these possible changes make me really sad because I thought that the LGBT community was starting to be more accepted,” Amanda Ambriz ‘16 said.
The new bills target every group that falls under the LGBT category. For example, some states are attempting to make it okay for high schools to not allow transgender students in the bathroom of the gender that they identify as, as well as not allowing them to participate in school sports that cater towards the gender that they see themselves as. Another change that many states are hoping to implement will allow businesses to deny service to patrons based off of religious beliefs, and, since a large amount of people who disagree with the LGBT lifestyle do so based off of religious grounds, this change will heavily affect the LGBT community. The changes are not just limited to businesses, they will also include doctors in relation to sexual reassignment surgery, and to people that sell or rent housing.
“I think that the changes are discrimination and I think the ideas are wrong,” Miyori Fujii ‘17 said.
\Due to the controversial nature of this topic, there are opposing views among the American citizens as well as politicians. Republicans and conservatives all agree that these changes are necessary for Christians and people of other religions to freely express their beliefs after the ruling that occurred last year legalizing marriage equality among the LGBT community. The supporters of these changes believe that it is not discriminatory in the slightest because it does not take away rights from anyone. However, there are people that disagree. The opponents of these bills are Democrats and LGBT activists. The politicians believe that these bills do nothing other than discriminate against the LGBT community, and that they are attacking the citizens of the states where these bills have been filed. Democrats and LGBT activists are not the only ones that disagree with these changes. Many large corporations located in states where these bills have been filed, such as Netflix, Disney, AT&T, and Levi Strauss, have expressed that if these laws were to pass then they would remove their services in that state.