Republicans are implacably opposed. They want no part of it. No Republican senator will support it. The primary reason is the “religious liberty” thing. Churches and other religious institutions in he United States are aghast that LGBTQ people would gain full civil equality, and that religious entities would be legally required not to discriminate against us. Christian organizations are screaming like stuck pigs over that, and the Republican Party has their back.
It’s all a tempest in a teapot, given churches and church groups would retain the Constitutional right to appoint their own “ministers” thanks to what the Supreme Court has labeled the “Ministerial Exception.”
That exception is very broad, having been recently extended by the high court to explicitly include teachers, social workers and other professional staff at schools run by churches, even when those staff are not recognized as ministers by ordinary perception or definition. The Equality Act would not change that.
It would, however, end other religious exemptions to LGBTQ rights laws, like at universities such as BYU and Liberty that accept federal funds but discriminate against LGBTQ students in violation of Title IX.
This end result has the Right up in arms. They can’t stand the idea that discrimination against LGBTQ people would actually become illegal and they would really have to stop if they wanted to keep receiving taxpayer funds for their institutions.
Lately, the Right has been leveraging anti-trans sentiment too, playing on public fears that trans people would have to be treated equally. They trumpet that a lot, probably because they think it’s effective. But their biggest concern really seems to be the religious thing. They’re horrified that religious institutions would have to stop discriminating.
But, of course, that’s the crux of the matter. When Christian agencies are pretty much the only organizations in the U.S. invested in and committed to hurting LGBTQ people, then fighting those agencies with laws directly targeting them is necessary and proper.
So they’re kicking and screaming and carrying on, and they certainly won’t go down without a fight, a fight the Republican Party has committed to help them with.
As to the Left, I think there’s just a lot of apathy and lack of knowledge. Most Americans think it’s against the law to discriminate against LGBTQ people, or think it’s OK for religious people to do so. That combination of apathy and ignorance is a big problem.
