Professor Robin Wilson was recently quoted in a Chicago Reader article about the resurrection of Illinois Senate Bill 64. The legislation would prevent the government from taking action against businesses and licensed professionals claiming religious beliefs as the rationale for denial of services to LGBTQ customers.
"Illinois and 21 other states have a Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) that already protects the rights of religious people. After President Bill Clinton enacted a national RFRA law in 1993, states passed their own versions to offer people of faith additional protections at the local level.
"These bills, explains University of Illinois professor Robin Fretwell Wilson, were designed to keep the government from 'crushing people with neutral rules when they can predict that religious people are going to be impacted.' Such a case might include an Amish man who is unwilling to put an orange safety triangle on his buggy because he feels that 'as a matter of religion, that's flashy,' Wilson says. Rather than sending him to prison, a RFRA law would allow for a reasonable accommodation, such as putting a lantern in his carriage instead.
"Wilson believes that's very different from what SB 64 proposes.
" 'This is an absolute exemption from doing something without any consideration for any other interests,' she says. 'The RFRA says that the government can't push religious people around without good reason. It doesn't say religious people win.' "
Full article at ChicagoReader.com