A Democratic lawmaker on Tuesday accused his Republican colleagues of being “tone deaf” for holding a hearing on a bill to protect religious dissenters of same-sex marriage exactly one month after the shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando.
“Why in the world would you choose today of all days to hold a hearing on this discriminatory legislation? To say that this hearing is politically tone deaf is the understatement of the year,” said Rep Elijah Cummings, D- Md., at a House Oversight and Government Reform committee hearing.
Cummings said he doesn’t believe Republicans intentionally timed the event for the one-month anniversary of the shooting. But he said he and several opponents of the GOP’s First Amendment Act unsuccessfully petitioned for the hearing to be cancelled or at least delayed.
Sponsors Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, vigorously defended the bill, and said it’s designed to ensure that those who believe marriage is between one man and one woman are not subject to discriminatory reprisals from the federal government. According to the House version of the bill, conscientious objectors could not lose their tax status or federal grant funding simply over their beliefs.
Critics of the bill who testified at the panel claimed that religious freedom rights are already protected under the Constitution and that the legislation could allow for tax dollars to be used to fund organizations that refuse services to LGBT people.
“[The bill] recognizes that religious liberty in America has always meant that the government’s job is not to tell people what to believe or how to discharge their religious duties, but to protect the space for all people of all faiths — and of no faith at all — to seek religious truth and to order their lives accordingly,” said Lee.
Jim Obergefell, lead plaintiff in the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges decision that mandated same-sex marriage to be recognized in all fifty states, said holding the hearing “exactly one month after this horrifying event … is deeply hurtful to a still-grieving LGBT and allied community.”
“It is my opinion that a hearing like we’re having today would have been much better spent in looking at how best to ensure that no one in this country is subjected to violence or discrimination based on who they are or whom they love,” said Obergefell.
