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The danger of these laws goes far beyond the way in which courts may ultimately balance them with statutory and constitutional protections against discrimination. But, as earlier efforts to offer biblical justification for slavery and Jim Crow segregation have taught us, religious liberty should not be used as an excuse to discriminate. Religious liberty is a cherished constitutional value, enshrined in the First Amendment. So they have wrapped their bigotry in the cloak of religious freedom.

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They know that, as Americans have grown more accepting of LGBT people, they can no longer rely on discredited stereotypes to stymie the march toward full equality. If they had their way, the country would return to the era when gay people remained in the closet and the government claimed the right to say what could go on between consenting adults in their bedrooms. The new RFRAs are being championed by extreme religious-right groups that - as these profiles reveal - want to reverse the recent progress toward equal protection under the law for the LGBT community. The 5-4 ruling allowed a large, family-owned corporation to opt out of a requirement under the Affordable Care Act to provide its employees with insurance coverage for contraceptives because of the owners’ religious beliefs. Hobby Lobby added a powerful tailwind to the RFRA movement. Supreme Court’s 2014 decision in Burwell v. These new laws, such as the one enacted and then modified under intense public pressure in Indiana last year, are intended as a sword to promote discrimination against the LGBT community in the public sphere. They are named and loosely modeled after the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993.īut that law was intended as a shield to protect religious liberty.

This idea is particularly compelling to millions of evangelicals who see themselves and their values as being under siege in a rapidly changing society.Īcross the country, these opponents of LGBT equality are working to persuade state legislatures to pass laws known as Religious Freedom Restoration Acts (RFRAs) - statutes that ostensibly allow individuals to deny goods and services to LGBT people on the basis of their religious beliefs. Rather, they have used their large megaphone to create a dangerous new narrative that portrays Christians who object to homosexuality on biblical grounds as victims of religious persecution. The hardline religious-right groups that have long relied on the use of demonizing falsehoods to justify discrimination against LGBT people have not simply folded their tents and walked away.

Yet, while the majority of Americans support LGBT rights, these gains have produced a strong backlash.

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In addition, he served for almost a combined 30 years with various local Parish and Diocese of Phoenix entities and school boards as well as the chairing Catholic Education Arizona.In recent years, the LGBT rights movement has witnessed a sea change in American attitudes toward the gay community and, along with it, a series of dramatic policy and legal victories - most notably marriage equality - that would have seemed unthinkable just a decade ago. Juan Diego Leadership for the World award. made Sears the first recipient of the St. In 2011, Legatus International presented Sears with its Courage in the Marketplace Award. Gregory the Great, the highest honor that the Pope can bestow upon laypeople. In 2017, Pope Francis honored Alan Sears and his wife, Paula, knighting them into the Order of St.

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Brandeis School of Law and the University of Kentucky, Sears has continued his education with professional instruction at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Harvard Law School, Harvard Business School, Pepperdine University, and most recently earned a certificate in Catholic Social Doctrine from the Catholic University of America. While serving in numerous positions within the Reagan and Bush administrations, he worked for the Department of Justice and the Department of Interior. He built an international team committed to a comprehensive legal strategy that includes training, funding, and legal advocacy- resulting in important roles in 52 landmark victories at the U.S.

As the first president, CEO, and general counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom, Sears led all strategic initiatives from 1993-2017. Alan Sears serves as Founder of Alliance Defending Freedom.

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