Six months after the Supreme Court voted 5 to 4 in favor of the landmark civil marriage for same-sex couples in the US, religious liberty continues to wage war against it all over the nation.
According to the Washington Times, these fights will lead to new battle fronts in the coming year. There are six issues that are now adamantly being defended by advocates from each sides. Religious-liberty claims are used to create exemptions to anti-discriminations laws that protects the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) LGBT and HIV/AIDS Project director James Esseks said, "This is, in some sense, the 'Plan B' for those whose 'Plan A' - which was stopping LGBT equality laws wholesale - hasn't worked out so well," Another issue according to Mr. Esseks is the anti-transgender bills that will prohibit people from using bathrooms and other public facilities according to their biological gender. There will also be legal battles on requiring bakers, florist, and wedding service providers to serve couples that will go through gay marriage.
Voice of America wrote that one of the most popular cases on gay marriage legal battle is the case of Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, who was jailed for not granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Davis said she declined to give the marriage licenses under the authority of God.
Gay rights even has foes in the political arena, with Ultraconservative Texas Sen. Ted Cruz gaining support from the National Organization for Marriage, one of the major opponents of gay civil rights advocates, according to Seattle PI. NOM president Brian Brown said, "Sen. Cruz has not only signed NOM's presidential marriage pledge committing to take specific actions as President, but he has personally authored the pending federal marriage amendment to restore the right of states to define marriage as one man/one woman."
Other battle fronts include bills where gays will be prohibited from religious adoption. There will be legal battles on schools and university that recognize and fund religious students that has policies discriminating sexual orientation. The Human Rights Campaigns has taken steps against religious schools that wants to gain exemptions from federal law.
