Gay-rights advocates rally at Kansas Statehouse

Topeka, Kan. (AP) — Dozens rallied for gay rights Tuesday at the Kansas Statehouse as backers of "religious freedom" legislation worked to counter perceptions that their measure would encourage widespread discrimination against gays and lesbians.

Nearly 200 people cheered speakers, held signs and flags, and huddled under blankets in the chill of a clear but below-freezing afternoon to protest a bill providing legal protections to individuals, groups and businesses that refuse goods and services to gay couples for religious reasons. Supporters have said it focuses on protecting churches, florists, bakers and photographers from being punished for avoiding involvement in same-sex weddings, but critics say the bill is much broader.

The House approved the measure earlier this month, and Senate leaders quickly declared it dead after businesses and business groups protested and the Republican-dominated Legislature received national criticism. But the Senate Judiciary Committee also plans to have hearings next week on religious liberties issues, and the chamber's GOP leaders concede that a new, narrower proposal could emerge.

"I don't want people to be discriminated against," said Lori Strecker, a Lawrence nurse who shared a blanket at the rally with her 15-year-old son, Jai. "It's not OK."

The House-passed bill prohibits government fines and anti-discrimination lawsuits when people, groups or businesses — citing "sincerely held" religious beliefs — refuse to provide goods, services, accommodations or employment benefits related to marriages, civil unions or domestic partnerships or celebrations related to them. It also protects religiously affiliated adoption agencies from being punished for refusing to place children with gay couples.

The Kansas Catholic Conference, the conservative Kansas Family Policy Council and some GOP legislators have said they want a law protecting gay-marriage opponents' religious liberties in place before the federal courts invalidate the state constitution's gay-marriage ban. They've repeatedly compared the House-passed measure to policies enacted in other states in which legislators approved same-sex marriage.

"We're committed to working on the language so that we'll have a product that, at a minimum, people will know isn't going to do all the horrible things that have been said," said Michael Schuttloffel, the Catholic Conference's executive director. "There's a concerted effort by people on the other side to discredit the very concept of religious freedom, and they want to do that by linking it to bigotry."

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Information about the marriage bill: http://bit.ly/1dhFdQi

by John Hanna, AP Political Writer

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The Gayly – February 25, 2014 @ 7:30pm