yes

“Thomas Jefferson, one of our founding fathers states and by quote, “All men are created equal”; this implies towards all sexual orientations, race, and genders. Religious liberty is a foundational American value. Which means, under the First Amendment, one has the right to practice faith, and live free in a government-established nation. This is the beauty of America, and exemplifies the American culture we live in. 88% of Americans agree that religious liberty is a founding principle. Throughout our history, legislatures worked vigorously to protect liberty for all Americans. Because of the First Amendment, religious liberty and LGBTQ+ rights must hold a balance between one another and hold a true value towards Americans. The purpose of the Civil Rights Act is to propose equality and rights between all men.”

Ryan from Massachusetts

no

“The federal government cannot find a balance between religious liberty and protections for those who identify as LGBT because the premise of “protections” for the LGBT community requires that the government assure them, through the force of law, access to “public accommodations” from people who choose to run their businesses in accordance with their religious beliefs. By “public accommodations”, I do not mean that businesses are simply refusing people food, medical care, or electricity because of their sexual orientation, but that businesses define access to restrooms on the basis of biological sex, refuse to produce custom products that endorse same-sex ceremonies, or enforce dress codes on their employees. There is no sustainable compromise between State enforcement of “LGBT rights” against private actors and religious liberty, because religious liberty protects Americans’ right to live out their convictions in the public sphere. If the State decides when and how religious convictions can be expressed in the business world through some form of “compromise” such as the Fairness for All Act, the “balance” has already been destroyed, because the State, rather than God, is placed in the position of sovereign. In a system where true “separation of church and state” is respected, the State cannot dictate the terms of religious expression, especially over the Christian worldview, which sees the Bible as the rule for all of life. Many of the questions business owners will have to ask along the margins are difficult – and in those questions, conscience, not coercion, should be dispositive. At its core, this is a question of power. Those who claim a LGBT identity are not unable to access any service or product that anyone else could obtain. Someone seeking a cake to commemorate the legal recognition of a same-sex relationship is perfectly free to simply go to another bakery. Today, every single major corporation is pro-LGBT, even the previous Christian conservative bastion of Chick fil-A. The original intent of public accommodations law – to prevent the arbitrary denial of goods and services based on factors such as race – clearly does not apply, considering that there is no actual problem with access to goods and services. Rather, the effort is to enforce compliance with today’s iteration of the ever-changing moral standards of humanism.”

Don from Virginia