(OPINION) CP – The wide-reaching Equality Act championed by Democrats would put the hiring practices of faith-based organizations in “jeopardy” and will create additional religious freedom concerns for Christian schools, churches, and ministries, a prominent legal nonprofit argues.
Alliance Defending Freedom officials last Friday detailed the implications of the Equality Act, legislation backed by President Joe Biden that would codify discrimination protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity into federal law. The legal organization,
which has won several religious freedom cases before the U.S. Supreme Court in recent years, warned those watching an online webinar that the Equality Act could widen the definition of public accommodation in a way that could put faith-based institutions at risk. Senior Counsel Gregory Baylor said that the bill, which passed the Democrat-controlled House in 2019, “dramatically expands” the scope of what constitutes a place of public accommodation.
“Under the law we have right now, it’s actually not that many entities: it’s restaurants, it’s hotels, it’s means of transportation,” he explained. According to Baylor, supporters of the Equality Act want to expand the definition of public accommodation to include a “much, much broader category of organizations,” including “nonprofit entities like shelters and food banks.” READ MORE
