It is true that some on the religious right want to use law
to force everyone else to live by their moral standards. I have never
defended them on that. My point is very different: that gays should
be allowed to live their lives and their deepest commitments, and conservative
believers should be allowed to live their lives and their deepest
commitments. It is a remarkably tough sell on both sides. The mirror
image of conservative believers wanting to regulate gay sex is gay rights groups
wanting to regulate the behavior of religious organizations.
Douglas Laycock
University of Texas Law
School
727 E. Dean Keeton St.
Austin, TX 78705
512-232-1341
(phone)
512-471-6988
(fax)
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Newsom Michael Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2006 12:46 PM To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics Subject: RE: Catholic Charities Issue But the Religious Right
wants far more than the “right to live their own lives in their faith, and to
run their own institutions.” They want to “manage” the lives of others
whom, for religious reasons, they believe are sinners.
I agree with Alan and
Marty on this one. From: Douglas
Laycock [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] I do not mean to
include any right to harass and intimidate. I do mean to include the right
to live their own lives in their faith, and to run their own institutions, which
necessarily includes the right to exclude from those institutions persons who do
not accept their faith or the obligations that faith
imposes. Douglas
Laycock University of 512-232-1341
(phone) 512-471-6988
(fax) From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Behalf Of Newsom
Michael If by “religious
liberty interests” you mean the right to exclude, and perhaps even to harass and
intimidate, then I suppose that you have responded fairly to my query. If
one were to define “religious liberty interests” differently, then your example
does not respond to my query. From: Douglas
Laycock [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Douglas Laycock From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of Newsom Michael Could you give some
examples of gay rights proponents who ignore religious liberty
interests? Doug Laycock's
Answer: The gay rights groups organized and led the charge that killed the
Religious Liberty Protection Act. They did it by insisting on a
categorical exception for all civil rights cases, refusing to rely on the case
law that most civil rights claims present compelling interests or
their own view that all civil rights claims present compelling
interests. "All civil rights
claims" would include challenges to the male-only priesthood. It would
include claims of religious discrimination in awarding membership or leadership
positions in churches and other religions organizations. In At the state and local
level, gay rights groups insist on no religious exemption to gay rights laws or,
if they can't prevail on that, the narrowest possible definition of religious
organizations entitled to exemption. I assume it was these
recurring political conflicts, in which gay rights groups simply refuse to
recognize any competing interest on the other side of the table, that Alan
Brownstein was referring to, and not the occasional acts of disruptive
protest. Of course many of the
conservative religious groups are equally intractable with respect to gay rights
organizations. In the particular case of RLPA, most of them were at
all time willing to concede the compelling-interest exception, fully
understanding that courts were likely to find a compelling interest in most
civil rights claims. Douglas
Laycock University of
512-232-1341 512-471-6988
(fax) |
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