The Family Research Council (FRC) and
the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) are backing an Arkansas
bill that seeks to allow businesses to refuse service to gay men and
lesbians.
The bill, titled the Conscience
Protection Act (HB 1228), is being championed by Rep. Bob Ballinger
in the House and Senator Bart Hester in the Senate, both of whom are
Republicans.
“The legislation could allow any
person to undermine state laws by citing their personal religious
beliefs as an excuse to discriminate against others,” said the
Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest LGBT rights
advocate.
On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary
Committee refused to endorse the bill after Governor Asa Hutchinson
and Walmart expressed reservations, but with a simple majority,
Senate Republicans could pull the bill from committee to the Senate
floor.
In a blog post backing the bill's
passage, FRC described HB 1228 as a “freedom-loving bill which is
designed to ensure that individual's conscience and beliefs cannot be
easily trampled by intrusive government regulation.”
NOM President Brian Brown also endorsed
passage, calling Ballinger and Hester “two courageous state
legislators.”
“The consequences of this legislation
passing or not will be felt nationwide as same-sex 'marriage'
activists become increasingly emboldened by activist judges, they
won't stop pushing their agenda until everyone who conscientiously
objects to their vision of a radically altered America is silenced,”
Brown wrote.
(Related: Arkansas
Gov. Asa Hutchinson allows bill outlawing LGBT protections to become
law.)