Denver, CO, March 1, 2016…The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) opposes a bill before the Colorado General Assembly that would allow business owners and individuals to claim that their religious beliefs permit them to refuse to follow laws that they do not like, including critical non-discrimination laws. The bill, House Bill 1180, will be heard before the House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee on Wednesday.

 

Scott L. Levin, ADL Mountain States Regional Director, issued the following statement on the bill:

 

For more than a century, ADL has been an ardent advocate of religious freedom for all Americans. Despite the proponents’ attempts to cast the proposed legislation as a bill to enhance religious freedom, the bill would actually provide people with a right to discriminate against Coloradans by claiming their religion gives them justification to do so.

 

The effects of House Bill 1180 would be disastrous.  It would allow a high school guidance counselor to refuse to help a gay teenager by saying it goes against his religious beliefs to do so. It would allow a religious leader to refuse to cooperate with an investigation into child abuse by claiming his religious beliefs prevent him from testifying against members of his own religion. The bill would even allow a public employee adhering to an extremist religion, including Nation of Islam, Christian Identity, or Odinism, to refuse to provide service to an Asian, White, Black, Jewish or Hispanic person.

 

We have worked so hard to pass laws that protect those who are marginalized and discriminated against in our society. Religious disapproval should not exempt any individual or business from following Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act and critical civil rights laws.

 

The bill is nearly identical to legislation that was introduced and defeated in committee during the 2015 legislative session.