{"id":22418,"date":"2016-04-06T08:03:29","date_gmt":"2016-04-06T15:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/mississippi-gov-signs-law-allowing-service-denial-to-gays\/"},"modified":"2016-04-06T08:03:29","modified_gmt":"2016-04-06T15:03:29","slug":"mississippi-gov-signs-law-allowing-service-denial-to-gays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/mississippi-gov-signs-law-allowing-service-denial-to-gays\/","title":{"rendered":"Mississippi gov signs law allowing service denial to gays"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>JACKSON, Miss.<\/strong> \u2014 Mississippi\u2019s governor signed a law on Tuesday that allows public and private businesses to refuse service to gay couples based on the employers\u2019 religious beliefs.<\/p>\n<p>Gov. Phil Bryant signed House Bill 1523, despite opposition from gay-rights groups and some businesses who say it enables discrimination. Some conservative and religious groups support the bill.<\/p>\n<p>The measure\u2019s stated intention is to protect those who believe that marriage should be between one man and one woman, that sexual relations should only take place inside such marriages, and that male and female genders are unchangeable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis bill merely reinforces the rights which currently exist to the exercise of religious freedom as stated in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,\u201d the Republican governor wrote in a statement posted to his Twitter account.<\/p>\n<p>The measure allows churches, religious charities and privately held businesses to decline services to people whose lifestyles violate their religious beliefs. Individual government employees may also opt out, although the measure says governments must still provide services.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis bill does not limit any constitutionally protected rights or actions of any citizen of this state under federal or state laws,\u201d Bryant said. \u201cIt does not attempt to challenge federal laws, even those which are in conflict with the Mississippi Constitution, as the Legislature recognizes the prominence of federal law in such limited circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Other states have considered similar legislation. North Carolina enacted a law, while governors in Georgia and South Dakota vetoed proposals.<\/p>\n<p>Bryant acted within hours of receiving the bill after it cleared its final legislative obstacle Monday, even as opponents tried to marshal pressure to persuade Bryant to reject it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis bill flies in the face of the basic American principles of fairness, justice and equality and will not protect anyone\u2019s religious liberty,\u201d Jennifer Riley-Collins, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi, said in a statement. \u201cFar from protecting anyone from \u2018government discrimination\u2019 as the bill claims, it is an attack on the citizens of our state, and it will serve as the Magnolia State\u2019s badge of shame.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>Online: House Bill 1523: http:\/\/bit.ly\/1qo4guX<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>Follow Jeff Amy at: http:\/\/twitter.com\/jeffamy . His work can be found at http:\/\/bigstory.ap.org\/author\/jeff-amy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JACKSON, Miss. \u2014 Mississippi\u2019s governor signed a law on Tuesday that allows public and private businesses to refuse service to gay couples based on the employers\u2019 religious beliefs. Gov. Phil Bryant signed House Bill 1523, despite opposition from gay-rights groups and some businesses who say it enables discrimination. Some conservative and religious groups support the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-22418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22418\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22418"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=22418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}