US: IBM has 'strong opposition' to Louisiana religious freedom bill

IBM voiced its "strong opposition" to Louisiana's religious freedom bill (HB 707) backed by Gov. Bobby Jindal, a week after the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau also asked that the bill be dropped over fears that it would tarnish the state's open and accepting image.

"We are deeply concerned by reports that you intend to support this legislation. IBM has made significant investments in Louisiana including most recently a technology services delivery center in Baton Rouge, creating new jobs for Louisiana workers," wrote James Driesse, IBM senior state executive. "A bill that legally protects discrimination based on same-sex marriage status will create a hostile environment for our current and prospective employees, and is antithetical to our company’s values."

IBM's prominent, 800-job facility in downtown Baton Rouge is being built only few blocks away from where the legislation will be debated. The company is expected to bring 400 jobs to Monroe in the northern part of the state.  Read More 

A young man who survived “ex-gay ministries” taught me what it means to be a Christian

The campaign against marriage equality sent me fleeing from the church. Here's what brought me back. - Rachel Held Evans:  "If Christians in East Tennessee wanted to send the message that gay and lesbian people would be uncomfortable and unwelcome in our churches, that their identity would be reduced to their sexual orientation and their personhood to a political threat, then we’d sure done a bang-up job of communicating it...

A man I didn’t recognize invited us to attend a meeting that night to discuss the “radical homosexual agenda in America and how Christians should respond to it.” He spat out the word homosexual the same way others spat out the words liberal, feminist, and evolutionist, and it occurred to me in that moment that maybe I wasn’t the only one who brought an uninvited guest to church on Sunday morning. In a congregation that large, there was a good chance the very people this man considered a threat to our way of life weren’t out there, but rather in here—perhaps visiting with family, perhaps squirming uncomfortably with the youth group in the back, perhaps singing with the worship band up front. How lonely they must feel, how paralyzed.

...Seven years after the “Vote Yes On One” campaign sent me fleeing from the church, I discovered church again in an unlikely place: the Gay Christian Network’s annual “Live It Out” conference in Chicago. I spoke at the conference as an ally, but within hours of arriving at the Westin on the Chicago River, it became clear I had little to teach these brothers and sisters in Christ and everything to learn from them. Read the full excerpt from "Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving and Finding the Church" Read More

US: In depth, How the religious right is conspiring to put discrimination back into law.

In 1983, in Oregon, two men were fired from their jobs as substance abuse counselors after they were discovered to be taking peyote. The drug counselors applied for unemployment benefits, but the state rejected their claim, citing work-related misconduct as taking peyote is illegal in Oregon. But the men were both members of the Native American Church, where peyote is used in religious ceremony, and the Oregon Court of Appeals reversed the decision, stating that to deny the men unemployment benefits based on the religious use of a controlled substance violated the men’s First Amendment right to free expression of religion. 

Oregon appealed, and the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court twice. The final 5-4 decision, in 1990, ruled in favor of the state and against religion. Simply put, the court said, if people are allowed to pull the God card when they break a law, absolute anarchy awaits everyone. “To permit this would be to make the professed doctrines of religious belief superior to the law of the land, and in effect to permit every citizen to become a law unto himself,” the decision read.

It’s difficult to imagine Justice Scalia would have felt the same had the case involved something like underage Catholics drinking wine at communion rather than Native Americans using peyote. The Smith decision was widely decried as a devastating blow to First Amendment rights and jolted all sides of the political spectrum into action. As a response, in 1993, New York Democratic congressman Chuck Schumer introduced the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). Read More

France: Paper claims Pope rejected gay French diplomat as ambassador

Pope Francis met France’s nominated ambassador to the Holy See, who is gay, and told him that the Vatican would not accept his appointment, a French newspaper has claimed. The pontiff allegedly cited his displeasure with a controversial 2013 gay marriage law in France as part of his reason for the decision. According to the report, Stéfanini had a “very discreet” 15-minute audience with the pontiff over the weekend, who said his objection to the French appointment was “nothing personal”.

The refusal by the Holy See to formally accept Stéfanini’s credentials was seen as an indirect way of forcing France to pick another ambassador and avoid making a public statement on the issue. French president, François Hollande, had let it be known he was sticking by his first choice for the job. Usually, a country would not put a nominee forward to the Holy See if it knew following informal talks that the nominee might not be seen as acceptable.

The suggestion that Pope Francis would deny an unmarried gay man – who has repeatedly been referred to as private in his personal life – the chance to serve as France’s highest diplomat to the Vatican seemed to contradict a statement he made early in his young papacy, when he said “who am I to judge?” after he was asked about the existence of a “gay lobby” within the Vatican.  Read More

UK: Union of Jewish Students examines faith and sexuality at NUS conference

The annual NUS Conference in Liverpool brought over 1,000 delegates together to discuss important issues for UK's students. During the conference, Jewish students hosted a fringe event titled ‘Faith not Fear: Fighting for LGBT and Religious Freedom’.  Over 200 students attended the event aimed at exploring diversity in religion and the LGBT experience. Read More

US: At LGBT Orthodox conference, rabbis & therapists trade notes

In light of several recent Religious Freedom laws here in the United States and public spotlights on controversial conversion therapies, faith and sexuality have once again been cast as opposing forces. A groundbreaking conference sought to reconcile the two, convening religious leaders, mental health professionals and educators to discuss best practices for serving members of the Orthodox Jewish LGBT community.

The event attempted to bridge the gap between the unique struggles that LGBT people face in religiously observant communities and the latest research on psychological treatment by bringing together two professions not often in conversation with one another.

“Having therapists and rabbis in the room together talking about this topic is so necessary,” said Jeremy Novich, a clinical psychologist who attended both in a professional capacity and on a personal level, as a self-identified gay Orthodox Jew.  “How can we ensure that LGBTQ people in the Orthodox community are safe, how can we ensure that LGBTQ people in the Orthodox community aren’t suffering… that’s a question that’s posed to the rabbis, to the parents, & schools.”   Read More

What Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism really think of LGBTI people will surprise you

Think all religion is anti-LGBTI? Think again. While many know the arguments for and against equality from Christians, Muslims and Jews, have you considered the world’s other major religions? Journalist Harry Ess deconstructs the gender fluid deities, expressions of human desire, celibacy, and procreation prevalent in these major religions. Read More

Bob Witeck, Walmart's LGBT consultant, gets corporations on the workers' side

When Walmart sided with gay rights by saying that Arkansas’s religious freedom reformation act sends the “wrong message”, it surprised many. The nation’s largest employer is more commonly associated with low wages and red-state religious values than with LGBT rights.

But in working with Bob Witeck, the DC-based head of the gay and lesbian-focused communications group Witeck Communications, Walmart addressed charges by critics that it ought to put its money where its mouth is, and lobby to avert dangerous anti-gay legislation in its own backyard.

Like most consultants, Witeck doesn’t like to say too much about what he and his clients talk about. But in an interview with the Guardian, he offered some insight into how corporations have evolved in this regard. Read More

US: Most Americans side with gays in religious freedom disputes

A majority of Americans believe businesses should not be allowed to refuse services based on their religious beliefs in the wake of controversies in Indiana and Arkansas over gay rights and religious freedom, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found. It also found that 52% of Americans support allowing same-sex couples to marry, far more than the 32% who oppose it.

The survey results suggest a split over the issue between Americans and some of the politicians who represent them. Read more 

US: LGBT battle far from over as religious freedom bills multiply

The swift and overwhelming backlash that helped modify the religious freedom bills – spurred in particular by tech and business leaders – revealed a new front in the broader US culture wars over LGBT rights. Even as marriage equality emerges a winner in the national battle, other hard-won LGBT rights are being attacked under the guise of religious liberty.

Measures resembling those in Indiana and Arkansas have multiplied across the country – and the majority have garnered less attention. Twelve states besides Arkansas and Indiana have proposed religious freedom laws over the past year. The bills failed to pass in five states, but are still pending in seven.  Read More

US: Nationwide boycott leads to "Religious Freedom" bill amendment

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed a revised religious freedom bill that had been approved by lawmakers earlier after language was added that says the law cannot be used to discriminate. Critics of Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act called the law discriminatory, allowing businesses to refuse service to LGBT people.

Some state governments had banned the use of taxpayer money to fund city employees’ travel to Indiana, while some celebrities canceled upcoming appearances in the state. Read More

US: Students fight back after Catholic School fires their teacher

More than 150 students and alumni of a Des Moines–area Catholic high school demonstrated in protest of the school’s decision to rescind a full-time job offer of substitute teacher and school coach Tyler McCubbin because he’s gay. McCubbin says the school initially told him he could continue substitute teaching and coaching if he wanted. But after news of the decision prompted public outcry, the administration rescinded their offer. 

Students walked out of class and prayed in the rain with alums. “I just want the community to know that this is a really important topic, and that just because our school officials or diocesan leaders might have made this decision, it does not directly reflect what we believe as students,” said Grace Mumm, a sophomore.

The diocese has said that the Catholic School contract “contains specific language that outlines the code of conduct in accord with long accepted Church teaching” and that “it is our expectation that staff and teachers support our moral beliefs as they are the models of our Catholic faith.” There have been several cases around the nation of staff at Catholic churches and schools being fired or not offered jobs because they are engaged or married to a same-sex partner. Read More