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Yesterday, President Trump signed an Executive Order that paves the way for employers, health care providers, and social services agencies to discriminate based on religious belief without fear of being held accountable by federal civil rights enforcement bodies. The final EO, while different from the draft leaked in February, is dangerous for women, LGBQ folks, trans individuals, and others who may suffer discrimination based on another person’s or institution’s religious beliefs.
The EO does two major things that open the door for discrimination:
The EO also curbs the IRS’s ability to enforce a law called the “Johnson Amendment” that prohibits certain tax-exempt religious entities from engaging in political campaigns.
This EO is dangerous. It empowers federal agencies that are now run by individuals with histories of creating and supporting policies that discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, and reproductive health decisions, to use “religious liberty” to justify all kinds of discrimination. We don’t know yet what exactly Secretary Price, Attorney General Sessions, and other federal agency heads will do with this directive; but we can be fairly sure that the worst is yet to come.