303 Creative LLC v. Elenis Background:

• The owner of 303 Creative LLC, Lorie Smith, refused to take the business to design a website for a gay marriage. In Employment Division v. Smith, a circuit court ruled that a religious exemption was not adequate since the state prohibits discrimination in business transactions.

• Her website had signage showing she didn’t accept LGBTQ+ individuals which acted as free speech, but the true question is whether or not denying them services is also considered free speech.

Court Ruling — Freedom of Speech:

• The court ruled that forcing 303 Creative to design a website for the wedding of a gay couple violated their freedom of speech

Where to draw the line?:

• This ruling has opened the door for all businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ+ individuals through “religious” exemptions.

IMPORTANT Quote From Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy: “It must be emphasized that religions, and those who adhere to religious doctrines, may continue to advocate with utmost, sincere conviction that, by divine precepts, same-sex marriage should not be condoned. The First Amendment ensures that religious organizations and persons are given proper protection as they seek to teach the principles that are so fulfilling and so central to their lives and faiths, and to their own deep aspirations to continue the family structure they have long revered” (Leonard, 2023).

• Justice Kennedy feels as though religious freedoms that promote discrimination are more dire to protect than the freedom of LGBTQ+ individuals.

Conversion Therapy Definition: “A practice used to "change" an individual's sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual” (Taglienti, 2021).

• Only 18 states have banned health professionals from using it… and even though it's banned the penalty for using it is normally a small fine for “unprofessional conduct”.

• Around 100,000 children will go through conversion therapy before turning 18 years old

Conversion Therapy’s Risks:

• Increased risks of developing anxiety & depression

• Five times more likely to attempt suicide than their peers

• Amplifies social shame and rejection which can cause self‐hatred

  • “Children rejected by their families are eight times more likely to develop anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation, and six times more likely to use illegal drugs” (Taglienti, 2021).

Parents abuse children to conform:

• “After a few seconds of silence, Sam's father screamed in his face and punched him, knocking him to the ground. In that moment, Sam knew that his relationship with his father would be changed forever. Sam's parents thought they could cure his homosexual thoughts by physically reprimanding him. But, it did not work” (Taglienti, 2021).

Conversion Therapy Details:

• Lies: All gay people have AIDS, gay people are killed by the U.S. government

  Physical Torture:

  “Sam's arms were strapped down to a chair and blocks of ice were placed on top of his hands. Sam's therapist then showed him pictures of men holding hands, so that Sam would associate the pain of the ice with a man touching him” (Taglienti, 2021).

Mike Pence Supports: “Mike Pence, who is the [former] Vice President of the United States, is a supporter of conversion therapy and opposes same sex marriage and anti‐discrimination laws that protect gay people” (Taglienti, 2021).

• As evaluated from previous sources, religion plays a major role when shaping one's political view, and Mike Pence is a Christian nationalist. This explains why he hasn’t supported LGBTQ+ rights, as traditional Christian teachings go against homosexuality. It shows there must be a stronger doctrine separating church from state.

First Amendment Challenges:

• The First Amendment of the United States Constitution which protects Americans' right to free speech and religion has priority over eradicating LGBTQ+ discrimination.

• Ex: 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis

The Civil Rights Act of 1964:

• There was a major debate over the word “sex” in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as many politicians wanted to group the liberties it provides to Black Americans with women in the United States.

  • “A vote against this amendment today by a white man is a vote against his wife, or his widow, or his daughter, or his sister” (Johnson, 2022).

  • While the addition of the word “sex” was intended to benefit American women it inadvertently allowed room for modern courts to interpret LGBTQ+ injustice and discrimination.

Christian Nationalism: The belief that traditional Christian values should be implemented into legislation.

• Promotes sexism, racism, xenophobia, & homophobia.

• "Christian nationalism encourages ‘reconstructing’ America according to traditional religious ideals, this entails a cultural shift toward a more traditionalist, patriarchal gender ideology.” (Whitehead., & Perry, 2019).

  • A thorough evaluation of our country's history will show discrimination by race, ethnicity, gender, sex, and sexuality. In Christianity believers are taught to love one another, however, it’s clear that politics has plagued it with hatred and judgment.

Christian Nationalist President Trump:

• “A persistent and prominent narrative deployed by Donald Trump, both as a populist candidate and as a president, is that America must return to her ‘Christian roots’” (Whitehead., & Perry, 2019).

  • This proves President Trump is a Christian Nationalist

Religion's Role in Legislation:

• “Previous work regarding the role of religion in Congress members' legislative behavior found that despite these additional constraints, their personal religion is associated with their legislative outputs” (Arnon, 2018).

Geographic Legislation:

• Southern senators are more conservative on all policy issues.

  • The majority of Southern senators are Christians and so are their constituents.

    • This serves to explain political actions taken by Southern legislators to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people.

Political Affiliation and Religious Associations:

• Evangelical Protestants in the South predominantly support the Republican party

• Senators with a higher degree of conservatism have been linked to religious groups such as evangelicalism and LDS

• These traditionalist branches of Christianity are more right-winged extremist groups, that tend to be opposed to abortion and same-sex marriage.

LGBTQ+ Burden of Mental Illness:

• “37% of LGB+ adults experienced any mental illness in the past year, more than double that reported by heterosexuals” (Frey et al., 2021).

• “LGB+ individuals have at least 1.5 times higher risk of depression and anxiety disorders and at least 2 times higher risk of suicide attempt, with some studies finding that up to 20% of LGB+ individuals attempt suicide in their lifetime” (Frey et al., 2021).

  • The author attributes minority stress theory and the sexual stigma framework as the reason for higher levels of mental illness

Sexual Identity Stigma: The inferiority LGBTQ+ individuals feel towards the heterosexual community for being different.

• “Negative regard, inferior status, and relative powerlessness that society collectively accords to any nonheterosexual behavior, identity, relationship, or community” (Frey et al., 2021).

• One factor that varies the experience of this stigma is the location an LGBTQ+ person lives in

• The label of abnormal towards LGBTQ+ individuals creates inferiority due to the lack of publicization.

LGBTQ+ Discrimination In the South:

• In a survey of 23,001 LGBTQ+ middle school and high school students. 76.3% of students in the South reported experiencing bullying, harassment, and assault because of their sexual orientation, as opposed to 73.1% in the Midwest, 67.4% in the West, and 64.3% in the Northeast (Frey et al., 2021).

Censoring LGBTQ+ stereotypical behavior:

• Of the participants in the author's study, 56% felt like at times they needed to poetry their behavior to be less “LGB+”

Connecting To Religion:

• “Linked religious doctrine and political beliefs have furthered sexual minority stigmatization and historically, theological beliefs frequently precluded acceptance of people who identified as LGB+, constructing them as immoral, criminal, and mentally ill” (Frey et al., 2021).

Federal Government Silence:

• Does the Federal government’s silence on contested political policies violate the Equal Protection Clause?

  • This is a recurring question when it comes to the constitutionality of the “Don’t Say Gay” laws

  • “The idea was that by speaking about sodomy [gay sex], the authorities might encourage it. It is an exceptionally old idea, but it has not been retired yet” (Rosky, 2022).

Former Discriminatory Laws:

• “For five years, while thousands of gay men were dying of AIDS, the Reagan Administration explicitly prohibited the Surgeon General from discussing AIDS and repeatedly warned the press not to ask him about it” (Rosky, 2022).

• “In 1993, President Clinton signed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” a remarkably explicit example of the government’s discriminatory silence. Rather than banning gay people from serving in the U.S. Armed Forces, the policy prohibited military recruiters from asking whether applicants were ‘homosexual’ or ‘bisexual’ and prohibited gay and bisexual soldiers from coming out” (Rosky, 2022).

Florida’s New “Don’t Say Gay” law: Florida adopted the Parental Rights in Education law in March of 2022.

• The law states that “Classroom instruction . . . on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards” (Rosky, 2022).

Conversion Therapy: Efforts to try and change the sexual orientation of homosexual individuals

• Extensive clinical research has found that therapeutic attempts to alter a person's sexual orientation are ineffective and detrimental

• Conversion therapy exists due to the Christian religious belief, that suggests that homosexuality is immoral and sinful

• A survey of clinical fellows of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy reported that 1 in 20 therapists said that they had practiced conversion therapy, and 1 in 5 believed that it was ethical

• “The practice of conversion therapy continues in family therapy, burgeoned by the fact that the AAMFT has not banned the practice but has instead labeled it as unnecessary” (McGeorge, Coburn, Walsdorf, 2021).

Ineffectiveness of Conversion Therapy: Only 4% of participants reported a shift in sexual orientation.

• “Notably, this was a sample of 1,612 religious individuals who were highly motivated to alter their sexual orientation in order to gain acceptance within their respective religious communities” (McGeorge, Coburn, Walsdorf, 2021).

VERY IMPORTANT Quote: "Dr. Robert Spitzer (2012), the author of the premier study used to validate conversion therapy, retracted the findings from his study and apologized for the harm his study may have caused members of LGB communities” (McGeorge, Coburn, Walsdorf, 2021).

• Even the researcher who created one of the initial doctrines used as a guide to practice conversation therapy retracted his research because he no longer believed its validity. However even after he said it was ineffective, there were still family therapists using the invalid findings.

Derrick Sherwin Bailey's Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition:

• “Antipathy toward homosexuality represented an unbroken Christian tradition, even if that hostility was erroneously founded, sustained by emotional aversion rather than reason, and ignorant of psychology and other modern scientific insights into sexuality” (Kuefler, 2018).

  • Bailey relates homophobia to Christianity

Biblical Vagueness:

• “Boswell argued that passages in biblical texts used to condemn homosexuality either are too vague to understand clearly or have been misinterpreted, and cannot therefore be a sufficient historical explanation for the animosity of Christians to homoeroticism. This project of revision had already begun at the hands of liberal Christian theologians at the time he wrote.[40] Much of Boswell's argument here seems taken from Derrick Sherwin Bailey” (Kuefler, 2018).

  • The Bible could have been misinterpreted and society has weaponized the wrong interpretations to promote exclusion. Boswell believes that early Christians at one point did tolerate homosexuality.

• “Boswell argued that there were many others, including Anselm of Canterbury and Aelred of Rievaulx, who wrote poems or letters or treatises that celebrated same-sex desire” (Kuefler, 2018).

School Exclusion:

• Many LGBTQ+ adolescents experience physical/verbal abuse, discrimination, and social exclusion at school

• Teachers can perpetuate harassment and discrimination towards LGBTQ+ adolescents by failing to address students' behavior, further reinforcing homophobic notions.

LGBTQ+ Safe Spaces:

• Safe Space: “Refers to a welcoming and supportive environment in which LGBTQ students feel free from fear or persecution in expressing their diverse identities” (Beasy, Grant, Emery, 2023).

• The author argues that LGBTQ+ students need to have a physically safe space at school to better decrease discrimination and abuse caused by other students and staff.

Anonymity for LGBTQ+ Students:

• For LGBTQ+ student groups to feel safe some schools have implemented anonymous practices. However, the need for secrecy in itself shows the exclusivity of modern-day school environments. If our society was not heteronormative there would be no need for LGBTQ+ safe spaces and support groups.

Historical Context:

• On March 7, 1965, a Civil Rights march in Selma Alabama supported voting rights to enable Black Americans to register to vote. Unarmed marchers were confronted on the Edmund Pettus Bridge by state troopers who violently attacked and beat the Black American marchers with their batons. This event is known as Bloody Sunday.

Matthew Shepard:

• A gay college student who was murdered in 1998. This event sparked a period of mass outcry against homophobic violence.

  • “On October 6, 1998, the 21-year-old met two men at a bar in Laramie, and they offered him a ride home. They drove him out to a remote area, where they tortured him, tied him to a fence, and left him to die. He died in a Colorado hospital six days later” (Millard, 2023).

  • “His killers told police that while they initially intended to rob Shepard, the attack was prompted by disgust toward his homosexuality” (Millard, 2023).

• A member of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Casper, Wyoming

Painting Analysis:

• Around Matthew Shepard’s body are multicolored letters of prayers that he had written and sent to his parents over his lifetime.

  • The letters appear to be his halo, protecting him.

• The extended hand is representative of the violence that still plagues the LGBTQ+ community offering the view to care.

People must have courage when defending their morals:

• “Bravery in battle is needed, but so is the courage to stand up for what is right and against what is immoral, unethical, or illegal” (Thomas & Chaleff, 2017).

Moral Courage is Lonely:

• “It risks being isolated and singled out for painful personal consequences such as ridicule, rejection, and loss of job and social standing” (Thomas & Chaleff, 2017).

Opposition to Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill:

• “Critics maintain that it undercuts the dignity of LGBTQ+ people and that it will have the effect of stigmatizing and silencing LGBTQ+ teachers and students. Representative Carlos Guillermo Smith, who opposed the bill, stated that the law goes beyond its text and sends a terrible message to Florida youth that there is something so wrong, so inappropriate, so dangerous about LGBTQ+ people and issues that the topic has to be censored in classrooms” (Garcia, 2023).

• The law forces students to equate LGBTQ+ individuals as inferior since their voices are being silenced. This is extremely dangerous as it reverses decades of progress made to support the acceptance of LGBTQ+ individuals in the United States.

Banning LGBTQ+ Symbols:

• Since Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law is vague, it places a lot of power in the hands of parents who can sue the school. Teachers are being recommended by administrators to not wear clothing items that have rainbows on them, to avoid parental lawsuits.

Discrimination:

• “The statute will punish people who discuss same-sex marriages and relationships but not people who discuss heterosexual marriages and relationships” (Garcia, 2023).

The 14th Amendment:

• While the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment was created with the intent of protecting the rights of Black Americans, it has now been interpreted to protect the rights of other minority groups such as LGBTQ+ people

• Unfortunately, the lack of specific protection for LGBTQ+ Americans is what has led to the continuation of discriminatory practices by our government.

Christian Nationalist Core Beliefs:

• Christian nationalism has been linked to racist, sexist, xenophobic, and Islamophobic attitudes as well as voting for Donald Trump in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.

• Christian nationalists are not likely to acknowledge the injustices minority Americans face

• The United States should be formally declared a Christian Nation

Religious Sentiment in Politics:

• “The addition of "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance and "In God We Trust" to currency and stamps are only two of the many religion‐related changes that took place at that time” (Rotolo, 2022).

• Referring to the 1950s

Christianity associated with fear:

• In Christian ideology, fear is a major factor that retains people to the Church, fear of sin, fear of judgment

• “She again brings up same‐sex marriage: ‘I think they have the choice to try and struggle and not just give in ... I have some friends who are a lesbian and then a homosexual. I love them to death, but I don't love what they do. I don't want them to try and force upon me that I accept it.’ All of Eliza's political views are framed by FEAR” (Rotolo, 2022).