Officials from Alliance Defending Freedom said that the new Equality Act will be putting religious freedom at risk and will create additional concerns especially for Christians.
Without religious exemptions in hiring policies, the Equality Act will be putting Christians in jeopardy especially churches, schools and ministries, The Christian Post reported.
On Friday, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) said that the Equality Act can put faith-based institutions at risk with its codification of protection on gender identity and sexual orientation.
The Equality Act backed by President Joe Biden and the Democrat party has been passed by the House in 2019. Senior Counsel Gregory Baylor explained that unlike before, the bill might "dramatically expand" what can be considered as a place of public accommodation.
"Under the law we have right now, it's actually not that many entities: it's restaurants, it's hotels, it's means of transportation," Baylor explained.
The much broader category that might fit in into the expansion includes "nonprofit entities like shelters and food banks." However, faith-based schools and churches are might not be exempted from the new equality policy.
Baylor continued, "The way that they've written it doesn't rule out the possibility that a religious school or even a church in some of its functions might be deemed to be a place of public accommodation."
If this happens, religious organizations might have a hard time with their hiring processes since faith-based companies adhere to their respective beliefs concerning the distinction of sexes, sexual morality and marriage.
Baylor expressed his concern that "even a church could be deemed a place of public accommodation."
If a church will be considered a place of public accommodation under the Equality Act, then it will ban any sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) principle followed by the faith-based organization like with religious schools.
"If a law banning SOGI discrimination applies to a school as a place of public accommodation, it would be very difficult to maintain standards for admission of students (and) for conduct codes for students," Baylor added.
But schools and churches are not the only ones affected.
Under the Equality Act, "discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity" will be outlawed in the employment setting and housing including college dormitories.
This poses a concern especially with Christian organizations including churches, colleges and dormitories. Baylor emphasized that with the Equality Act, "men who identify as women" must be allowed to use women's restrooms and other female-only spaces.
The "ban on discrimination" will hurt believers' conscience even more because they have to do it "whether that violates their conscience or not."
Health plans may now include "cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers for children and sex reassignment surgery" even if it's a total violation of someone's faith and belief.
If the Equality Act becomes a law, it will "take away from religious people and religious organizations the best legal, religious liberty argument that they have" since the Equality Act does not consider religious exemptions.
While a legislation usually require 60 votes from the Senate before it passes, Democrats are now discussing to abolish such a rule to pass a legislation with just a simple majority. If that happens, the Equality Act might pass as a bill sooner rather than later.
