Last week the LDS Church voiced their support for a proposed statewide non-discrimination bill that offers protection for the LGBT community as long as it balances religious liberties. Our "Political Insiders" think that support means the proposal has a good chance of passing during the 2015 session.
66% of Republicans, 91% of Democrats and 82% of our readers say it's likely that the proposal passes through the Legislature this year.
Selected anonymous comments:
"Much more likely now that the Church has expressed approval. But there will still be a push for 'religious freedom' which basically still allows discrimination."
"I heard the Church say it was important to do both, protect religious freedom and get non discrimination. Unfortunately neither will pass because either side won't agree to the demands of the other."
"Anti-discrimination legislation is nothing more than a solution looking for a problem."
"I think it will pass committee and get a floor debate, but I can't imagine the legislature moving forward before the Supreme Court weighs in on gay marriage. And I worry that the religious freedom legislation will go too far and become a freedom-to-discriminate proposal."
"It will all depend on the 'religious liberty' aspect of the legislation. Much will depend on how that is defined. If religious freedom will allow people to avoid the requirements of the non-discrimination rules, then the rule has no meaning and it may simply turn into a big and pointless argument. Legislators who oppose the non-discrimination aspect of this legislation may also continue to oppose it to show that they are not simply the handmaidens of the Church."
"I have doubts it wll pass this year just because t will be difficult for individual legislators to change their views on such a fundamental issue that quickly. I expect it will pass next year by a fairly comfortable margin."
"Dealing with religious liberties will be complicated and allows critics to justify not supporting any proposed bill."
"The LDS church's support was based on inclusion of protection of religious liberties. The LGBT community will never agree that people should be allowed to have religious beliefs."
"The interesting part of all this will be to learn what the Church might consider the 'religious freedoms' they want protected. Will it be to allow them to refuse to solemnize gay marriages (no problem), or will it involve allowing LDS businesspeople to discriminate against gays (big problem – just substitute 'black' for 'gay' to see how it sounds!)"
"It will only pass if the religious liberty bill passes with it. The religious liberty bill is nothing more than sanctimonious bigotry. It is not 'persecution' to treat everyone equally."
"Far more likely than before their announcement. This gives Republican legislators cover to do the right thing."
"Devil is in the details. If we don't get them all worked out we'll push it off to next year and just arrest Troy Williams a couple more times."
"I think balancing the non discrimination and the religious liberty issues will be slightly more tricky than people realize. They might want to spend some time studying it out."
