Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said religious liberty advocates are “weaponizing” the Bible to “justify bigotry,” much like “those who justified slavery did.”
During a Thursday House Oversight Committee hearing about the Trump administration’s “religious liberty assault on LGBTQ rights,” Ocasio-Cortez said people using religious exemptions to exclude gay and transgender citizens remind her of those who “weaponized” Scripture to enable slavery, white supremacy, and racism.
“It’s very difficult to sit here and listen to arguments in the long history of this country of using Scripture and weaponizing and abusing Scripture to justify bigotry,” the New York Democrat said to the panelists present at the committee hearing. “White supremacists have done it. Those who justified slavery did it. Those who fought against integration did it, and we’re seeing it today.”
The freshman congresswoman, a Catholic, said she believes the Christian faith compels people to treat others as if they are holy.
“My faith commands me to treat Mr. Minton as holy because he is sacred, because his life is sacred,” she argued, referring to one of the committee panelists. “There is nothing holy about rejecting medical care of people, no matter who they are, on the grounds of what their identity is. There is nothing holy about turning someone away from a hospital. There is nothing holy about rejecting a child from a family. There is nothing holy about writing discrimination into the law.”
She added, “And I am tired of communities of being of faith being weaponized and being mischaracterized because the only time religious freedom is invoked is in the name of bigotry and discrimination.”
The Trump administration has rolled back some regulations relating to gender identity and sexual orientation, including banning transgender people from the military and changing certain regulations that prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender or sexual orientation. Conservative organizations, such as the Alliance Defending Freedom nonprofit organization, have praised the administration for protecting “faith-based” interests.
President Trump has rolled back several federal protections for gay and transgender Americans put in place by the Obama administration. His administration has likewise expanded exemptions for religious groups, including allowing adoption and foster care agencies that receive federal funding to turn away prospective providers who are gay or transgender.
