Kentucky passed a heinous bill today, the ACLU reports:
Today Kentucky's House passed House Bill 279. The bill, entitled the Religious Freedom Bill, is designed to protect individuals' religious liberty from undue governmental interference. And though laudable in its purpose, the bill, as currently drafted, would undermine existing civil rights protections in the Commonwealth. It now moves on to the Senate.
If the Senate chooses to keep the bill's current language, and not amend it to include specific protections for civil rights laws, a religious individual could claim an exemption from any law or policy that prohibits discrimination-leaving racial minorities, women, LGBT people and others without adequate protections. We are particularly concerned that this bill could be used to undermine existing LGBT Fairness protections for individuals covered by local statutes in Louisville, Lexington, Covington and Vicco, Kentucky.
