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Talking About Religious Exemptions & Service Discrimination

The Bottom Line

Several states have recently proposed legislation to allow businesses to discriminate against customers who don’t conform to the specific religious beliefs that marriage should be restricted to a man and a woman, and that sex should be restricted to such marriages. These laws encourage discrimination against same-sex couples, unmarried couples and individuals, single parents, and others.

Talking About Religious Exemptions & Service Discrimination is a guide to effective conversations that can help broaden people's understanding of how these license-to-discriminate laws can open the floodgates to discrimination not just against same-sex couples and LGBT people, but also against unmarried couples, single parents and others across a wide array of areas and businesses.

Recommended citation:
Movement Advancement Project. March 2017. "Talking About Religious Exemptions & Service Discrimination." MAP's Talking About LGBT Issues Series. https://www.lgbtmap.org/talking-about-religious-exemptions-service-discrimination (date of access).

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Sexual Orientation Policy Tally

The term “sexual orientation” is loosely defined as a person’s pattern of romantic or sexual attraction to people of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or more than one sex or gender. Laws that explicitly mention sexual orientation primarily protect or harm lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. That said, transgender people who are lesbian, gay or bisexual can be affected by laws that explicitly mention sexual orientation.

Gender Identity Policy Tally

“Gender identity” is a person’s deeply-felt inner sense of being male, female, or something else or in-between. “Gender expression” refers to a person’s characteristics and behaviors such as appearance, dress, mannerisms and speech patterns that can be described as masculine, feminine, or something else. Gender identity and expression are independent of sexual orientation, and transgender people may identify as heterosexual, lesbian, gay or bisexual. Laws that explicitly mention “gender identity” or “gender identity and expression” primarily protect or harm transgender people. These laws also can apply to people who are not transgender, but whose sense of gender or manner of dress does not adhere to gender stereotypes.

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