Singer Lance Bass and actress Mary
Elizabeth Ellis are calling on Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant to
veto a so-called religious freedom bill approved by lawmakers that
broadly protects opponents of marriage equality.
House Bill 1523 would protect
individuals – a broad category which could include certain
businesses – who act on their religious objections to marriage
equality and transgender people. It would protect people who believe
that “sexual relations are properly reserved” for married
heterosexual couples and that a person's sex is “objectively
determined by anatomy and genetics at time of birth.”
“This is all about discrimination,”
Lance says in a two-and-a-half minute video released by the Human
Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest LGBT rights advocate.
“Let's be on the right side of
history on this,” Ellis
says.
“We're better than this bill and I
urge my fellow Mississippians to join me in calling on Governor
Bryant to veto HB 1523 when it reaches his desk this week,” Lance
adds.
On Friday, Bryant, a Republican,
refused to say whether he would sign the bill into law.
(Related: Mississippi
Gov. Phil Bryant won't say whether he'll sign anti-gay bill.)