Eugene weekly., May 29, 2014, Page 7, Image 7

LIVING OUT
BY SALLY SHEK LOW
Got Religious Freedom?
CONVOLUTED REASONING SPINS IN ANTIGAY CIRCLES
I
n the U.S. your freedom of — and from —
religion is protected. Everyone’s is. Under
federal law, you have the right to believe or
disbelieve whatever you want, to practice (or
not) any religion you choose, and to attend
the church, synagogue, mosque, temple, coven, or
faerie circle of your liking — if any. That’s a lot of
freedom.
But is it enough? A group of Oregon’s anti-gay
Christians, going by the catchy name “Friends of
Religious Liberty” (an offshoot of the homo-hating
Oregon Family Council) want more freedom than
that. They want their very own special freedom —
the freedom to discriminate.
At fi rst they tried to put a “Protect Religious
Freedom” measure on Oregon’s November ballot
arguing that “religious convictions” should be a valid
reason to refuse services, facilities and goods related
to same-sex weddings. But when the ballot initiative
titles came out, the Freedom Protectors dropped their
petition project tout suite. I guess they didn’t like the
wording Oregon’s attorney general assigned to their
bill, which was something along the lines of “Gives
homophobes the right to be a-holes.” Haha, JK.
In any case, come November, we will not be
voting to legalize discrimination. Yay.
These so-called Friends of Religious Liberty are
persistent, though. They’ve re-girded their loins and
are now marching off to defend the religious freedom
of one particular Gresham baker who refused to bake
a cake for a couple of brides-to-be. They claim the
baker, found to be in violation of Oregon’s non-
discrimination laws, was the one discriminated
against.
The Friends of Religious Liberty support
believers who believe their religion deems same-sex
marriage too totally gross and icky to even bake a
wedding cake. They believe they are the ones being
discriminated against by non-discrimination laws.
They need legal protection.
Of course they already have it. Not the freedom
to violate nondiscrimination laws, but queer-averse
Christians’ freedom to believe and espouse whatever
beliefs they want actually is protected. They’re
also protected from discrimination in housing,
employment or public accommodations anywhere
in this country, unlike, by the way, LGBTQ people,
who have no such protection in 29 states. Here in
Oregon we fought hard to fi nally include sexual
orientation in our non-discrimination laws — and
yes, religion is there, too. Always has been.
Still, they intend to sue Oregon for enforcing
Oregon’s nondiscrimination laws. Good luck with
that.
They’re fi ghting a losing battle. Oregon just joined
the pantheon of marriage equality states and opened
the doors of matrimony to all couples who care to
enter. (Sorry, thrupples and other types of bonded
love units not yet included.) This really makes the
religious freedom fi ghters fi ghting mad, making
such statements as, “The redefi nition of marriage
and state policies on sexual orientation have created
a climate of intolerance and intimidation for citizens
who believe that marriage is the union of a man
and a woman and that sexual relations are properly
reserved for marriage.”
Say wha’? Right-wing Christians are the victims
of intolerance and intimidation? Don’t even try
to wrap your mind around that. Their convoluted
reasoning will have your head spinning so hard
you’ll be tempted to call an exorcist — which I
believe would be your constitutionally protected
religious freedom.
Award-winning writer Sally Sheklow has been exercising her freedom in
her Eugene Weekly column since 1999.
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