Senate Fast-Tracks Bill After House Denies It Over Procedure
The Texas Senate appears to be speeding up a religious liberty bill that LGBTQ lawmakers in the Texas House quickly killed last week. The Texas House felt that passing of the bill would be dangerous to the community.
House Bill 3172, also dubbed the “Save Chick-fil-A Bill”, appeared to almost be passed until Democrat Julie Johnson raised a point of order stating the the bill hadn’t followed proper procedures which lead to the removal of the bill without debate or vote.
The proposed legislation states, “a governmental entity may not take any adverse action against any person based wholly or partly on a person’s belief of action in accordance with the person’s sincerely held religious belief, or moral conviction, including beliefs or convictions regarding marriage.
Why Dubbed The “Save Chick-fil-A Bill”?
The law was dubbed the “Save Chick-fil-A Bill” after restaurant chain Chick-fil-A was prevented from opening a location in the San Antonio International Airport due to the owners belief that marriage is between one man and one woman.
Life Site News reported that the Council felt that the chain’s convictions would prevent passengers from feeling welcome as they traverse through the airport.
Those who support the bill state the it will protect religious freedom by helping both people and businesses who disagree with gay marriage from government discrimination.
Meanwhile opponents feel that it will legalize discrimination of the LGBTQ, and erode enforcement protecting LGBTQ individuals from being fired from jobs or evicted based on their sexual orientation.
After killing the bill, Representative Julie Johnson commented, “Hopefully this is the day discrimination against the LGBT community dies in the Texas House.”
Meanwhile Senator Hughes mentioned in a committee meeting held on Monday that he wanted to see the bill Representative Krause put forward in the House progress, and that his bill would be consistent with the language in Krause’s bill.
There is speculation that the House will would have passed had the point of order not been given since half of the Texas House had signed on as authors of the bill.
The bill may be considered by the Texas Senate as early as this week.
