Kansas ‘Religious Freedom’ Bill Hurts Children and the Economy

With drastic education cutbacks and highly publicized teacher walkouts, the states of Kentucky, Arizona and Oklahoma have been winning the race for Most Regressive Political Action lately.

But then Kansas says, “HOLD MY BEER.”

In an effort to reclaim our frontrunner status in the backward-reaching legislation race, Kansas lawmakers are trying to push through a bill that would allow adoption and foster care organizations to refuse placement with same-sex parents. It’s one of those garbage “religious freedom” measures that tries to hide discrimination behind claims of constitutional freedom. But nobody’s buying it.

While some of these organizations might claim faith-based affiliations, they also receive government funding. Which takes this whole conversation into some murky church-state laws to begin with. Allowing those organizations to exclude LGBT couples (or individuals) amounts to state-sanctioned bigotry, and there is no way around that. The legislators pushing for this bill (which is backed by the state Department for Children and Families) insist that the rights of these organizations takes precedent over the rights of the same-sex couples to grow their families without judgment or exclusion.

What they’re really saying is that both church AND state organizations reserve the right to discriminate, as long as the dominant cultural bias around these parts will condone it from behind. And as long as the Koch brothers say its ok.

This is one more example of the ways in which power and privilege can collude to abuse the boundaries of faith AND freedom—in the name of both. It is counterintuitive, and deeply ironic—but somehow, it still functions, and will continue to function until enough people of faith speak up on behalf of the LGBT community and rewrite this narrative. Statistics show that more than half of American Christians support same sex rights. But somehow, the public presence of faith is still dominated by the vocal minority.

There’s a really simple way to start shifting these dynamics of public discourse. If you are a Christian who thinks that there’s room for all kinds of people and families in your community—and in the framework of your faith—call your representatives and tell them so. Tell them that you’re a person of faith, and that this kind of measure is hateful, petty and runs counter to everything you know about God. Ask them not to support this bill. Then tell them that if they DO push it through, they can’t rightfully claim to do so on behalf of religious freedom.

Even if you don’t consider yourself a church person, there are plenty of practical reasons not to support this bill. For one thing, it harms children. Fewer adoptive parents means more kids in the system. More kids in the system means fewer resources to go around and more kids falling through the cracks.

Furthermore, there are some dire economic implications for the state as a whole. The Human Rights Campaign opposes this measure, which means it is getting a great deal of exposure. State legislators received a letter from TechNet—a collective of over 80 major technology companies—urging them to reject this discriminatory bill. The network, which includes Apple and Google among others, states that: “Discriminatory legislation would hamper the state’s ability to attract, recruit and retain business and top talent, drive declines in the state’s travel and tourism industry, weaken the state’s ability to attract next-generation entrepreneurs and innovators, and make Kansas less competitive for the relocation or expansion of both large and small businesses.”

In other words: We aren’t bringing our jobs or our innovations to your communities if you keep hating on the gays. Because it’s 2018 and the rest of us are ready to move the hell on.

It’s worth noting that the Kansas City Metro is the mothership of Google Fiber, and part of Kansas City Metro resides on the Kansas side of the state line. Johnson County, where I live, is also home to Garmin. And Sprint. And the list goes on. There is a great deal of potential growth wrapped up in technology here. Considering that Gov. Brownback’s experiments in Tea Party economics all but bankrupted the state, Kansas can’t afford to lose any of its tech grounding in the name of Jesus. Or anybody else for that matter.

This bill, like most any “religious freedom” garbage that comes down the pike these days, amounts to a lose-lose-lose prospect. It hurts children, it hurts economic growth, and it compromises the very freedoms it claims to protect. If you don’t want to see this go through, get on the phone to your lawmakers. (Find contact information here.) Quote scripture if you have to.