{"id":177710,"date":"2021-02-26T17:50:51","date_gmt":"2021-02-26T22:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=177710"},"modified":"2021-02-26T17:58:49","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T22:58:49","slug":"house-republicans-push-bill-aimed-at-balancing-lgbt-rights-and-religious-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-republicans-push-bill-aimed-at-balancing-lgbt-rights-and-religious-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"House Republicans Push Bill Aimed at Balancing LGBT Rights and Religious Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhouse-republicans-push-bill-aimed-at-balancing-lgbt-rights-and-religious-freedom%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=177710&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/rsz_gettyimages-886497034.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>House Republicans are rallying around a compromise bill that would add protections for religious organizations in addition to granting discrimination protections to LGBT citizens. The bill comes one day after House Democrats passed the Equality Act, which critics say infringes on religious liberty rights and is likely to fail in the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Chris Stewart (R., Utah) introduced the legislation Friday, intending to strike a middle ground between protecting religious freedom and LGBT rights.\u00a0The <a href=\"https:\/\/stewart.house.gov\/uploadedfiles\/fairnessforallact02.24.21.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bill<\/a> codifies protections for LGBT individuals against discrimination in housing, employment, and other public accommodations\u00a0while also including exemptions for religious institutions and employers that are not explicitly present in the Equality Act.<\/p>\n<div class=\"posts-content__category-widget md:hidden -ml-4 -mr-4 my-8 px-4 py-6 bg-gray-100\">\n<h4 class=\"mt-0 text-red-600 font-medium font-sans uppercase\">Recent Stories in Politics<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;Americans shouldn&#8217;t have to worry about losing their jobs or apartments because of who they are. By the same token, Americans shouldn&#8217;t have to worry about losing their jobs or their apartments because of their sincerely held religious beliefs,&#8221; Stewart said. &#8220;We have been too quick to label and dismiss each other over these issues. The right way out of this false dichotomy is to define protections for LGBT Americans and religious Americans in federal law.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The bill, which Stewart originally introduced in 2019,\u00a0garnered 20 Republican cosponsors, including two Republicans who <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/house\/540605-here-are-the-three-gop-lawmakers-who-voted-for-the-equality-act?rl=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">voted<\/a> for the Equality Act, Reps. Tom Reed (N.Y.) and\u00a0Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.).<\/p>\n<p>Democrats passed the Equality Act in a mostly party-line vote. Three Republicans crossed the aisle to vote for the legislation, which passed 224 to 206. The bill is likely to fail in the Senate, however, where it needs 10 Republican votes to overcome a potential filibuster.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats appear unlikely to budge from pushing for the passage of the Equality Act, casting doubt on whether Congress can pass Stewart&#8217;s compromise legislation. President Joe Biden signaled his support for the Democrats&#8217; legislation and called on Congress to pass the Equality Act immediately.\u00a0Religious liberty groups criticized the bill for infringing on the rights of religious Americans.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The <span class=\"il\">Equality<\/span> Act is a license for the government to discriminate against Americans\u00a0who seek to live out their faith in their schools, businesses, and communities,&#8221; said Kelly Shackelford, president of the First Liberty Institute. &#8220;It guts the promise of the First Amendment that Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>LGBT advocates, meanwhile, cheered the passage of the legislation as a landmark move by Congress to protect their rights.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This has been a long time coming and it represents progress that for me was unbelievable growing up,&#8221; Rep. Mondaire Jones (D., N.Y.), who is black and identifies as gay, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HRC\/status\/1365033926826336279?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1365033926826336279%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&#038;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2F2021%2F2%2F26%2F22303053%2Fhouse-passes-equality-act-lgbtq-senate\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> on the House floor. &#8220;Today we send a powerful message to millions of LGBTQ people around the country and indeed around the world that they are seen, that they are valued, that their lives are worthy of being protected.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"my-8 hide-print\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1526555381173-4\" class=\"mobile-250 desktop-90\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>House Republicans are rallying around a compromise bill that would add protections for religious organizations in addition to granting discrimination protections to LGBT citizens. The bill comes one day after &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2274325,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/rsz_gettyimages-886497034.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"House Republicans Push Bill Aimed at Balancing LGBT Rights and Religious Freedom","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-177710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/rsz_gettyimages-886497034.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"House Republicans Push Bill Aimed at Balancing LGBT Rights and Religious Freedom","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2274325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}