Mississippi state Senator Jenifer
Branning last week defended 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.”
During an appearance on Bryan Fischer's
Focal Point radio show, Branning, who introduced the bill in
the Senate, said that the bill was needed because “people of faith
are under attack.”
“It's a very important piece of
legislation in our state,” Branning said. “And the reason that I
know that is, all you have to do is read the news. You see what's
going on across our nation. People of faith in our nation are under
attack.”
She added that the bill's references to
gender identity were needed to protect doctors from being forced to
perform sex change operations.
“That protects people in the medical
profession,” she
said. “Those people that have sincerely-held religious beliefs
that you are the gender identity with which you were born, those
individuals would not be forced to have to participate in a sex
change operation or related procedures.”
Branning said in a
now-deleted Facebook post that the bill presents “a solution to
the crossroads we find ourselves in today as a result of Obergefell
v. Hodges. Ministers, florists, photographers, people along
those lines – this bill would allow them to refuse provide
marriage-related business services without fear of government
discrimination.”