Religious Freedom Restoration Act” passed on a party-line vote in Iowa’s GOP-led Legislature, with all Republican lawmakers voting in favor of it.Reynolds signed the measure at a private event hosted by The Family Leader, a conservative Christian organization opposed to LGBTQ rights.
She also sought to justify her actions by claiming those with conservative religious beliefs are a persecuted group. “Thirty years ago, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act passed almost unanimously at the federal level,” she said in a statement. “Since then, religious rights have increasingly come under attack.
Today, Iowa enacts a law to protect these unalienable rights — just as 26 other states have done — upholding the ideals that are the very foundation of our country.The new law took effect immediately upon being signed by Reynolds.“State action shall not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion, even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability, unless the government demonstrates that applying the burden to that person’s exercise of religion is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest and is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest,” it states.In plain speak, that means that any action by the state — such as Iowa’s 2007 law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity — could be challenged by a person who believes their “sincerely held religious beliefs” are threatened by the law, such as a non-church wedding venue that refuses to rent out space for same-sex weddings, for example.
Opponents of the law say that is exactly how courts will interpret the bill, allowing people who simply dislike the idea of LGBTQ visibility to.
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