BY EMMA O'NEILL

 

Kansas state House of Representatives have passed a bill allowing people to refuse service to homosexuals on religious grounds.

 

The bill was passed 72-49 as a move to safeguard against same-sex marriage's deeply opposed across many southern states.

 

The bill, HB 2453, states that any person may be allowed to refuse to “provide any services, accommodations, advantages, facilities, goods, or privileges; provide counselling, adoption, foster care and other social services; or provide employment or employment benefits, related to, or related to the celebration of, any marriage, domestic partnership, civil union or similar arrangement” without fear of court action for discrimination.

 

Many are viewing this bill as the “Jim Crow laws for gays”, saying that all it does is legalise discrimination. Although at the last vote of same-sex marriage in 2005, Kansas had 70 per cent against allowing it, many feel like this is a step too far.

 

Patricia Sloop a Democratic in the Kansas House, said “I strongly support religious freedom, but this bill is not about religious freedom. In my opinion, this is about legalised discrimination.”

 

The senate have said they plan to block this bill when it appears in front of them later this week. Although a strong supporter of traditional marriage, Republican senator Susan Wagle feels that there will not be a lot of support for this bill.

 

“My members don’t condone discrimination. If we cannot find ample common ground to ease legitimate concerns, I believe a majority of my caucus will not support the bill.”

 

Andrew Sullivan, a freelance political writer, believes this stance is not because of the GOPs ethics, but more a cling to voters.

 

"If the Republican party wanted to demonstrate that is wants no votes from anyone under 40, it couldn't have found a better way to do it. Some critics have reacted to this law with the view that it is an outrageous new version of Jim Crow and a terrifying portrait of the future for gays in some red states. It is both of those. It's the kind of law that Vladimir Putin would enthusiastically support. But it is also, to my mind, a fatal misstep for the movement to keep gay citizens in a marginalised, stigmatised place.”