The good news is that last week, a federal judge overturned Mississippi’s ban on adoption by same-sex couples—the last such state ban. But a pending bill threatens to hobble that progress.
U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Jordan III on Thursday overturned the state’s adoption ban, in a case brought by the Campaign for Southern Equality and the Family Equality Council on behalf of several couples. It was argued by Roberta Kaplan, the attorney (and lesbian mom) who won the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court Windsor decision that struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
The day before, however, the Mississippi legislature passed one of the broadest so-called “religious freedom” bills in the country, one that would allow religious organizations to cite “sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions” as a reason to deny a wide variety of services.
The convictions covered by the bill, HB 1523, are:
(a)Â Marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman;
(b)Â Sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage; and
(c) Male (man) or female (woman) refer to an individual’s immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy and genetics at time of birth.
Based on those convictions, religious organizations may refuse to conduct a wedding, provide facilities, accommodations, or goods for a wedding, or provide foster care or adoption services. They may cite them as a reason to fire employees. Individuals may cite them as reason to refuse wedding-related services (flowers, cakes, photographers, etc.), psychological treatment, fertility services, or counseling or treatment related to gender transitioning. Government employees may use them as a reason to refuse to perform marriages. People may also establish “sex-specific standards or policies concerning employee or student dress or grooming, or concerning access to restrooms, spas, baths, showers, dressing rooms, locker rooms, or other intimate facilities or settings.”
The whole bill is awful—but I want to stress, in light of the adoption ruling, that if it allows people to be fired because of a religious employer’s bias, or if it threatens psychological counseling that someone is receiving, say, then there may be same-sex couples who choose to stay in the closet and not risk the exposure that an adoption, not to mention being parents afterwards, would create. Remember, too, that even if HB 1523 does not pass, Mississippi allows people to be fired or refused property because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The bill was headed to Governor Phil Bryant’s (R) desk Friday before a last-ditch procedural effort by Democrats to delay it. Chances are it will pass and go to him today. Will he side with the legislators of his party and sign it, or will he veto it after seeing the opprobrium being heaped upon North Carolina for its recent anti-LGBTQ legislation?