The House of Representatives advanced a bill Thursday afternoon that would allow Wyomingites to deny services when their religion disagrees with people’s actions, including potentially allowing county clerks to deny issuing licenses to same-sex couples.
House Bill 83, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, has two more votes to clear in the House before consideration in the Senate.
Supporters and opponents of the bill argued passionately about the measure, invoking Sharia law, Mesoamerican ritual abuse of animals and peyote.
Even the intent of the bill was disputed.
Sponsor Rep. Nathan Winters, R-Thermopolis, denied that it is a discrimination bill, although Rep. Charles Pelkey, D-Laramie, said the bill was the result of the October court decision allowing gay marriages and “discomfort by some, particularly in the public sector.”
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Winters said the Religious Freedom Restoration Act was passed by Congress in 1993. In 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the act exceeded federal power.
Dozens of states have since enacted versions of the federal act, he said.
In Wyoming, religious freedoms and the freedom of conscience are protected by the state constitution, but the protections aren’t specific enough, said Winters, a Baptist pastor.
“This legislation is designed to close this particular gap in Wyoming law,” he said.
Winters didn't talk specifically about same-sex marriage, but he said photographers should have the right to decide which weddings they shoot.
Rep. Marti Halverson, R-Etna, said religious people in health care have the right to decide which procedures to perform or prescriptions to fill.
Rep. Mary Throne, D-Cheyenne, argued that the law isn’t neighborly and sends an ugly message. She believes the bill will be challenged in court. As a churchgoer, she finds it offensive.
“And this bill is more (of) an assault on my religious freedom and my religious conscience than anything that might be done to challenge my religious beliefs,” she said.
In the mid-1950s, certain states in the South hid behind freedom of conscience to refuse services to blacks, said Rep. Jim Byrd, D-Cheyenne, who opposed HB83.
“I’m quite taken back by the discussion in this room,” he said. “We just discussed that a freedom of conscience could be a statutory right to discriminate against anyone you choose for any decision you choose. I don’t think our founding fathers had this in mind. I don’t think our Constitution embodies those ideals.”
At the suggestion of Rep. Bob Nicholas, R-Cheyenne, lawmakers amended the bill, striking the provision that the state pay the attorney’s fees of a religious person whose rights were violated.
“This provision is what I call an attorney’s gold mine,” said Nicholas, an attorney.
Reach political reporter Laura Hancock at 307-266-0581 or at laura.hancock@trib.com. Follow her on Twitter: @laurahancock.