Texas lawmakers are considering a group of bills that could impose new hardships on LGBT individuals in the populous southern state.
Supporters claim the bills protect religious freedoms, but opponents are calling them "religious refusal bills" or simply "bigot bills" according to a report by NPR.
One of the bills, Senate Bill 17, would allow professionals - meaning anyone from doctors to plumbers -to deny their services on the basis of sincerely held religious beliefs.
Opponents believe that the bill was specifically designed to allow Texas Christians to discriminate against LGBT Individuals, but has been written wide enough to allow almost any sort of discrimination as long as it based in a religious belief.
Supporters say that without the bills, Texas's faithful have been forced to choose between their religious beliefs and pursuing a career in government licenced professions.
"Texans are very concerned about the attacks on religious freedom and people of faith, particularly people that believe in marriage and sexuality as it's defined in the bible," said Jonathan Saenz, president of Texas Values, a non-profit that promotes Biblical values. "Senate Bill 17 just makes it clear that you can't force someone to choose between their work and their faith," he said.
A coalition of more than 1,000 businesses, called Texas Competes, has been lobbying strongly against the bills. Alongside ethical concerns, citing the fallout from North Carolina's 2017 "Bathroom Bill" and anti-LGBT legislation in other states, they fear that the bills will dampen out of state tourism, investment and talent acquisition.
During a gathering on the steps of the state capital building in Austin last week, Mike Hollinger, an executive at IBM, said "I'm proud to speak on behalf of IBM, a company with an 80-plus year legacy in Texas and a workforce of around 10,000 here in the Lone Star State. This license to discriminate will damage the state's reputation and prevent people, including IBMers from wanting to live and work here."
The group's website says "Treating LGBT people fairly and welcoming them warmly costs nothing and would change our state’s brand for the better, while creating quantifiable, long-term economic benefits. That’s what we call a smart business decision."
