An Illinois Senate bill that would allow religious organizations and affiliated nonprofits to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation in their hiring practices was killed last week.
The bill, SB3447, was stopped in committee March 2 through the efforts of organizations such as the Illinois American Civil Liberties Union and Equality Illinois to reach out to Senate Judiciary Committee members.
Rick Garcia, director of public policy for Equality Illinois, said the organization's full advocacy team talked with every committee member and the bill does not appear to have enough votes to resurface in committee.
"Technically [ the bill ] is still in committee, but it's not going anywhere," Garcia said. "We've got commitments from almost everyone it's not going anywhere."
Nonetheless, Anthony Martinez, acting co-director of LGBT Change—an organization that aims to bridge advocacy voices with political leaders—said he still encourages people to contact their senators and demand SB3447 not be called for a vote.
"The bill should not even be proposed, so the fact that it's even up for discussion is really alarming—that they'd try and take away rights and write discrimination into law," Martinez said.
Initially drafted by likely GOP gubernatorial candidate state Sen. Bill Brady and now sponsored chiefly by state Sen. John O. Jones, SB3447 would amend the Illinois Human Rights Act to "not apply to a religious organization, association, or society or any nonprofit institution or organization operated, supervised, or controlled by or in conjunction with a religious organization, association or society with respect to employment qualification based on religion or sexual orientation."
According to Martinez, writing discrimination back into the Human Rights Act in this way would very likely be a first.
SB3447 is not the only controversial bill Brady has removed his sponsorship from: last week he also detached himself from a bill that would re-legalize gas chambers for the mass euthanasia of dogs and cats. Brady has also openly opposed both civil unions and same-sex marriage.
"I challenge [ Brady ] to show me one religious institution that has been harmed by those civil rights protections [ guaranteed by the Illinois Human Rights Act ] ," Garcia said. "It's born out of a desire to attack gay and lesbian people and their families."
For more information, visit il.aclu.org/site/PageServer?pagename=IL_Content_BadIdeaReligDiscrimFactPage.
