The LA Times Editorial Board released an editorial this week defending the First Amendment rights of California Christians. The editorial validates the concerns many Christian leaders have voiced against AB 2943, a bill banning religious resources to help people live consistent with their beliefs about sexuality and gender. The board also wrote the bill could apply to religious resources, like the Bible.
AB 2943, which has already passed the Assembly 50-18, outlaws all resources and counseling sold to help someone change their sexual orientation. But according to the Board, the bill’s definition of sexual orientation change efforts is so broad that it also includes attempts to “change behaviors or gender expressions.” Since many religious groups “teach sex is permissible only within heterosexual marriage,” the bill would violate their constitutional rights to “counsel adherents to live by those teachings,” wrote the Board.
The bill’s author, Assemblyman Evan Low and LGBT Caucus chair, insists the bill does not apply to the sale of books and other goods like the Bible. But according to the Board, the “bill itself makes no such declaration [protecting books]. And the existing Consumer Legal Remedies Act clearly applies to the sale of goods such as book, videos and other educational materials – including those sold by churches and other religious groups.”
Read and share this May 7th editorial to others who are still skeptical about the far reaching effects of this bill.
