Attorney General Jeff Sessions has issued guidance for “Protections for Religious Liberty” throughout the federal government.

Principal 2 states,

“The free exercise of religion includes the right to act or not to act in accordance with one’s religious beliefs”,

meaning the government will not penalize religious organizations for their religious beliefs, including when it comes to hiring practices or other aspects of their religious practice. Similar language has been used in court cases where businesses and organizations have refused to serve GLBT people because of religious beliefs.

Other Principals state,

“Government may not exclude religious individuals or entities based on their religion,” and

“Generally, the federal government may not condition federal grants or contracts on the religious organization altering its religious character, beliefs, or activities”,

and similar language has been used to protect child-care and adoption agencies from losing governmental grants if they reject same-sex couples.

Just as corporations have become individuals when it comes to campaign contributions, Sessions considers businesses individual exercising religious beliefs under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act when they discriminate against same-sex couples.

Before Sessions’s guidelines, RFRA laws only dealt with the government directly burdening someone’s religious practice, but now it will be extended to individuals who would discriminate because of their religious beliefs, and that includes businesses.

For example:

Although it was not part of the case, under Sessions the Department of Justice submitted a brief in the case now before the Supreme Court where a bakery refused to sell a wedding cake to a same-sex couple.

According to Sessions,

“A law that seeks to compel a private person’s speech or expression contrary to his or her religious beliefs implicates both the freedoms of speech and free exercise.”
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The DOJ claims that when the baker bakes, he is creating a work of art in which he can express his religious beliefs as opposed to merely providing a service, that of baking a cake.

As a result of the new guidelines, all government agencies will have to run a “religious freedom” test on all of their decisions when it comes to actions such as grants and litigation, so as not to adversely affect those who profess their actions are based on religious beliefs.

A memo claims that

“The Guidance does not authorize anyone to discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity in violation of federal law or change existing federal and state protections”

is easily overridden by the practice, especially since Trump signed an executive order in May regarding “religious freedom” that had as its focused allowing religious organizations and leaders to engage in political speech without penalty with the instruction that

 “In order to guide all agencies in complying with relevant Federal law, the Attorney General shall, as appropriate, issue guidance interpreting religious liberty protections in Federal law.”

The executive order was accepted as a first step and this latest by Sessions is the next.

The DOJ now argues that firing an employee for being Gay is permissible because the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not actually prevent GLBT Americans from getting terminated on the basis of their sexuality.

According to Jeff Sessions,

“Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination encompasses discrimination between men and women but does not encompass discrimination based on gender identity per se, including transgender status”.

All of which seems to go against Trump’s June 2016 campaign promise,

“Thank you to the LGBT community! I will fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs. “

Not all people are created equal according to Jeff Sessions, nor are they endowed with certain inalienable rights.

Others get to pick and choose what rights were given to whom.