Editor who used 'gaystapo' claims religious discrimination

There is a lot of minutiae to this complaint that does not make it a slam dunk for either side. It will be interesting as to how it plays out. The Hobby Lobby ruling may factor in as well as the whole shebang of "religious liberty" that the religionists are fond of pushing.

An Iowa newspaper editor fired after publishing his views on homosexuals is claiming he was the victim of religious discrimination by his former employer.

Bob Eschliman, former editor of the Newton Daily News, filed a complaint this week with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission office in Milwaukee arguing that he was terminated May 5 because of his religious beliefs. If the dispute isn't resolved to Eschliman's satisfaction, he could sue in federal court to seek financial damages.

In late April, Eschliman, 41, a member of Christian Reformed Church of Newton, wrote a personal blog post criticizing the "Queen James Bible," a website that rewrites the Christian Bible to be friendlier to gays. Eschliman accused "the LGBTQXYZ crowd and the Gaystapo" of trying "to make their sinful nature right with God."

Jim Romenesko, who hosts a widely read online blog about the news media, reported on Eschliman's post and questioned whether Eschliman, in light of his publicly stated views, would be able to fairly cover issues involving gays.

Editor who used 'gaystapo' claims religious discrimination

Fringe Furor: Extremists Denounce Executive Order Banning Anti-Gay Discrimination | Americans United

“The Obama administration and its militant cronies want to tell Christians whom to hire, how to run their business and how to think,” Todd Starnes declared in a recent column. “And now the president has decreed that any religious group that holds viewpoints divergent from the LGBT agenda is not worthy of federal tax dollars.”

He concluded, “The Obama administration seems hell-bent on forcing Christians to assimilate to the militant LGBT agenda. Resistance is futile.”

That agenda, of course, is simply about achieving equal civil rights. To refer to it as militant is the most blatant fear-mongering; we’re talking about GLAAD, not Al Qaeda. But to Starnes and his ilk, the prospect of equal rights for LGBT people represents a direct threat to their fundamentalist ideology.

Cue the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). In an email blast sent to supporters the day the order was signed, Archbishop William E. Lori and Bishop Richard J. Malone wrote, “In the name of forbidding discrimination, this order implements discrimination. With the stroke of a pen, it lends the economic power of the federal government to a deeply flawed understanding of human sexuality, to which faithful Catholics and many other people of faith will not assent.”

That’s some incredible logic.

Let’s be clear: faith-based organizations can still discriminate against LGBT employees. They’re entitled to express their conviction that sexual minorities are “deeply flawed.” They’re simply not legally entitled to public funds if that’s the direction they choose to take. It is not the responsibility of the federal government to help these groups advance their specific interpretation of a religious tradition.

Fringe Furor: Extremists Denounce Executive Order Banning Anti-Gay Discrimination | Americans United

Mississippi's 'Turn Away the Gays' Law Now in Effect | The Bilerico Project

Mississippi's "turn away the gays" law, which was passed by lawmakers and signed by GOP Governor Phil Bryant in April, took effect last week on July 1.

The new law creates a special "right" for people and businesses to discriminate against LGBT people and other minority groups, as long as they claim they're doing so for religious reasons. As I reported back in spring, the law will have the likely effect of undermining or even blocking future efforts to pass local LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination statutes, as it specifically covers "any municipal or county ordinances, rules or regulations and the implementation of those laws," regardless of whether they were enacted before or after the law's enactment.

It could also allow pharmacists to refuse to dispense HIV medication, contraception, or hormone replacement therapy; permit businesses like restaurants, hotels, bakeries, photographers, reception halls, and formalwear stores to turn away same-sex couples; and undercut nondiscrimination policies at public universities.

Mississippi's 'Turn Away the Gays' Law Now in Effect | The Bilerico Project

Hobby Lobby's Supreme Court Win Sets Up Battle Over Anti-Gay Discrimination

While the company Hobby Lobby triumphed at the U.S. Supreme Court in challenging Obamacare's contraceptive mandate on Monday, the Court does not seem to have flung open the floodgates for anti-LGBT discrimination as some had feared it might.

Instead, legal observers noted, the ultimate resolution has been left for another day on whether a private business could lawfully discriminate against LGBT people on religious grounds. But Justice Anthony Kennedy offered gay rights advocates a glimmer of hope on that front as well.

The Court ruled 5-4 that the government could not mandate "closely held" private companies with sincerely held religious beliefs, like Hobby Lobby, to cover certain kinds of birth control for their employees. That decision hinged in part on the religious freedom rights of a private corporation. Prior to the ruling, LGBT rights advocates had worried that a broad decision could open the doors for more anti-gay discrimination bills like the Arizona bill that stirred national debate earlier this year.

Based on initial readings of the Hobby Lobby decision, LGBT advocates seemed to have dodged a bullet. The Court's ruling, written by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, is explicitly narrow in effect. But some advocates worry that those pushing anti-LGBT bills will see an opening to introduce new bills and file new lawsuits to legitimize discrimination. Whether they'd win, though, is much less clear.

Hobby Lobby's Supreme Court Win Sets Up Battle Over Anti-Gay Discrimination