2015 was a landmark year for the LGBT community with the Supreme Court’s rule that legalized same-sex marriage throughout the United States.
Unfortunately, not even a year later, there are still significant problems for the LGBT community from lawmakers. North Carolina recently passed an anti-LGBT law that bans individuals from using restrooms that don’t coincide with the gender on their birth certificates, and now the governor of Mississippi has also signed into law a ban against the LGBT community.
Governor Phil Bryant has just signed a law that allows businesses to deny service to gay customers due to the business owners’ religious beliefs.
The law would allow private organizations, churches, and religious charities to deny services to people of the LGBT community solely based on the fact that providing service to those people would violate the business/group’s personal beliefs on marriage and gender.
Bryant’s justification for signing this law was based on protecting the “religious beliefs and moral convictions of individuals, organizations and private associations.” The governor goes on to argue that the rights and actions of citizens would not be limited under this new law. This new law wouldn’t be able to challenge federal laws, so government organizations are still required to provide services to the LGBT community, while still allowing the individual companies and employees their “right” to refuse service.
The passage of these types of discriminatory laws has seen major backlash by major companies. There have been objections from Tyson Foods, MGM Resorts International, and Nissan against the signing of this bill. Even Ellen DeGeneres used her opening monologue to speak out about her thoughts and concern on the passage of this law.
Only time will tell if this law will bring on as severe of backlash as North Carolina is experiencing. The Mississippi law will be in effect as of July 1, but hopefully for the LGBT community, changes happen to prevent this allowance of discrimination in Mississippi.
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