Brian Brown and Tony Perkins are among the social conservatives speaking out against the Equality Act, the proposed federal bill which seeks to prohibit anti-LGBT discrimination in seven key areas, including credit, education, employment, federal funding, housing, jury service and public accommodations, by effectively expanding the Civil Rights Act, originally approved in 1964.

Leading Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders and major corporations, including Microsoft, Google and Facebook, have endorsed the Equality Act, which is expected to receive strong opposition in the Republican-led House.

Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the leading group opposed to marriage equality in the United States and abroad, said that the bill should be called “the Persecution of Americans Act” because it will extend the supposed persecution of wedding-related vendors who refuse to serve gay and lesbian couples to “impact Americans in virtually every area of life.”

“The legislation puts in the crosshairs anyone who believes God created people male and female,” Brown wrote. “It would declare that a traditional view of human sexuality is hateful and bigoted and treat Christians, Jews and other people of faith just as the law treats racists. HR 3185 specifically denies someone who has been targeted the ability to rely on the provisions of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as a defense against the complaint of discrimination.”

“What lies 'beyond marriage equality' is persecution,” he added. “And that's what HR 3185 should be called – The Persecution of Americans Act.”

Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council (FRC), a vocal opponent of LGBT rights, also suggested renaming the bill.

“The entire purpose of the 'Equality Act' (better titled the 'Un-equality Act') is to provide special privileges to people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender by incorporating sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity into laws regarding employment, like ENDA would,” Perkins said in an email to supporters.

“[T]he Equality Act strips conscientious objectors of their freedom and would, by law, require their compliance with the LGBT agenda,” he added.