California’s Attorney General issued a press release yesterday banning state travel to Alabama due to “discriminatory legislation.” Attorney General Xavier Becerra also banned state-funded and state-sponsored travel to Kentucky, South Dakota, and Texas for the same reason.
Interestingly, the Alabama law he condemns for being discriminatory protects against discrimination. It says religious adoption agencies can’t be forced to place children in homes that violate the agencies’ beliefs. More specifically, if an organization’s statement of faith says they hold to distinctively Biblical principles, they can’t be forced to place children into homes with homosexual parents. In other words, Christian adoption agencies can’t be discriminated against just because they’re freely exercising their religion according to the dictates of their conscience. To do so violates First Amendment, which says Congress can make no law that violates that free exercise of religion, so the Alabama law affirms the First Amendment.
Nevertheless, Attorney General Becerra wants to flip the script on the Alabama law to say it’s discriminatory, even though it only applies only to private, religious agencies who receive no state or federal funding. In so doing, he’s carrying the water of the LGBT lobby in seeking to elevate one’s sexual preferences to the level of constitutionally-protected doctrines like religious freedom.
The Alabama law passed overwhelmingly in the State House and Senate. As Governor Kay Ivey said when she signed the bill into law, “I ultimately signed House Bill 24 because it ensures hundreds of children can continue to find forever homes through religiously-affiliated adoption agencies. This bill is not about discrimination, but instead, protects the ability of religious agencies to place vulnerable children in a permanent home.”
Meanwhile, California Attorney General Becerra said, “While the California DOJ works to protect the rights of all our people, discriminatory laws in any part of our country send all of us several steps back. That’s why when California said we would not tolerate discrimination against LGBTQ members of our community, we meant it.”
Translation: if you don’t embrace our views of tolerance, we will not tolerate you. In fact, we will try to punish you for freely exercising your religious beliefs, but we will do so in the name of tolerance.
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