A federal judge on Thursday blocked a Mississippi law protecting religious individuals and organizations from punishment for holding traditional sexual mores.
U.S. District Court Judge Carlton W. Reeves said House Bill 1523, which would have gone into effect Friday, is “state-sanctioned discrimination.”
“There are almost endless explanations for how HB 1523 condones discrimination against the LGBT community, but in its simplest terms it denies LGBT citizens equal protection under the law,” Mr. Reeves wrote in his opinion, issuing the preliminary injunction.
Under HB 1523, religious individuals and organizations would not be subject to state discrimination due to their traditional views on sexuality, including the beliefs that marriage is the union of one man and one woman, sexual relations should be reserved for marriage and gender identity is biologically determined.
Religious medical professionals, for instance, would not be forced to perform so-called sex-reassignment surgeries. Religious wedding vendors would be able to decline to service gay wedding ceremonies. Religious adoption and foster care agencies would not be forced to provide their services to same-sex couples.
The bill was signed into law on April 5 by Republican Gov. Phil Bryant. It came in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges last year, finding a right to same-sex marriage in the Constitution.
Even before that decision, religious businesses and individuals had been prosecuted nationwide for declining to engage in activity that violates their beliefs.
Judge Reeves was nominated to his seat on the District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi in 2010 by President Obama.
• Bradford Richardson can be reached at brichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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