According to Bloomberg Law, “For-profit businesses can be shielded from LGBT discrimination liability based on sincerely held religious beliefs, a federal judge in Texas ruled Sunday, addressing several legal questions left open after the U.S. Supreme Court granted anti-bias protections for sexual orientation and gender identity. … The ruling comes in a lawsuit that Braidwood and Bear Creek filed against the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, seeking carve outs to Title VII following the Supreme Court’s landmark 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, GA, which expanded civil rights protections for LGBT workers. The justices left unaddressed the scope of religious defenses to workplace discrimination liability. For years, legal clashes between religious rights and anti-bias laws have raged in employment and public accommodations cases, as well as on Washington’s Capitol Hill where a comprehensive LGBT rights bill known as the Equality Act awaits Senate consideration.”
Right on cue! The assault on LGBTQ rights intensifies given SCOTUS’ new ultra-conservative majority. Do not be fooled by the 6-3 ruling in Bostock. Don’t forget that RBG was part of that six-member majority. Now that Barrett is on the court, at best, any new ruling to protect LGBTQ rights would be 5-4, but this particular case has that all-important religious FREEDOM! component, which the anti-LGBTQ justices will use as a defense to allow others to hate and discriminate. So, the Bostock standard will be upended by anyone and everyone claiming some religious exception to hate on the gays. Since this case originated in Texas, it will be appealed to the ultra-conservative United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, where they will rule in favor of the defendants. Then the EEOC will appeal to SCOTUS in which case they may not take up the case and allow the lower court’s ruling to stand, or they will take up the case to officially sanction all-out discrimination against the LGBTQ community. Oh, and don’t worry. Congress will never pass legislation to codify LGBTQ members as a protected class. We’ll never be protected under federal law, so everything is at the whim of the states and federal courts. We’re going backward here, and being gay still means you can be treated as a second-class citizen. How purely American! In the end, America always reverts to the mean, which is racist, homophobic, misogynistic, blah, blah, blah. Nothing ever changes — really. Gay marriage is next! Mark my words, f***tards! Welcome to stupid America!