Hisham Ibrahim/Photographer’s Choice RF/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — A number of national social organizations withdrew their support for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act on Tuesday citing the recent Supreme Court decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby as proof that the provision allowing religious organizations to, “discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender identity” is “no longer tenable.”
In a joint statement, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, Lamda Legal, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the Transgender Law Center said that the existing provision, “would prevent ENDA from providing protections that LGBT people desperately need and would make very bad law with potential further negative effects.”
Under the Supreme Court ruling, the organizations claims that religiously affiliated organizations, such as hospitals, nursing homes and universities, could engage in workplace discrimination against LGBT people.
“Given the types of workplace discrimination we see increasingly against LGBT people, together with the calls for greater permission to discriminate on religious grounds that followed immediately upon the Supreme Court’s decision last week…it has become clear that the inclusion of this provision is no longer tenable,” the joint statement read.
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