Please Take Action

I write this post with a heavy heart. I listened to the Wednesday edition of Focus on the Family with tears in my eyes. There is a Bill, waiting for the Governor of Colorado to sign, that will obolish the difference between men and women.

This is only the beginning. Once this happens in a few states, it is only a matter of time before it happens in other states.

Here is the article from Citizenlink.org (Focus on the Family's legal branch of the ministry)

Colorado Legislation 'Normalizes All Varieties of Sexual Orientation'

Senate Bill 200, which is sitting on Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter's desk, is a dangerous piece of legislation that Dr. James Dobson will highlight on his Wednesday radio broadcast.
Supporters claim the bill will prevent discrimination; in reality, the bill endangers religious freedom by opening the door for the state to punish any person or organization — including small and home-based businesses — that refuses, for religious or other moral reasons, to offer or sell goods or services to homosexuals, bisexuals, "transgendered" and transsexual individuals.

Tom Minnery, senior vice president of government and public policy at Focus on the Family Action, wrote about the legislation for Saturday's Denver Post:

Proposed anti-bias law would open a Pandora's box

A disturbing question has lurked in the background of the growing clamor from the left to end all discrimination, for all reasons, in all places.

The question is this: are separate restrooms for men and women the modern-day equivalent of separate drinking fountains for whites and blacks?

If Gov. Bill Ritter signs a bill now sitting on his desk, the answer for Coloradans will be, unfortunately, yes. The bill is Senate Bill 200, a hastily conceived and vastly overwritten piece of legislation designed to forcibly normalize all varieties of sexual orientation.

There are multiple problems with this legislation, but the problem of restrooms is the most breathtaking one. Until now, establishments open to the public have been allowed to restrict certain restrooms and locker rooms to one sex if it made sense to do so, as it almost always does. With SB 200, however, we no longer have two "sexes"; we enter a brave new world with a myriad of "sexual orientations" that must not be discriminated against, upon pain of the substantial civil and criminal penalties contained in the bill.

Woe to the first women's fitness facility or mall owner who objects to a man dressed as a woman who wants to enter previously forbidden territory. And what an opportunity for sexual predators to use this law as "cover" to enter intimate areas in search of a victim.

And what an opportunity for confusion. In the bill, "sexual orientation" is defined as "a person's orientation toward heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, or transgender status or another person's perception thereof." This latter term includes cross-dressers, men who self-identify as women, women who self-identify as men, and people who are in the process of deciding.

Restrooms are not the only problem. The bill adds a prohibition against discrimination in "sexual orientation" to more than 23 separate provisions of Colorado law that already prohibit discrimination in various areas of public life. As a result, SB 200 threatens religious liberty. That's because Colorado's broadly defined "public accommodations" law includes not just hotels, restaurants, coffee shops, and all the usual places you'd think of, but also every small business, even a home-based business, that offers "goods or services" to the public.

A refusal to do business with someone based on a sincerely held religious belief that homosexuality is wrong would violate the law. That threatens the religious liberties of every Christian, Jewish or Muslim business owner who operates a business on faith-based principles.

This is not a hypothetical threat. In Albuquerque, which has a similar law, a Christian husband and wife who own and operate their own photography studio were recently hauled before that state's human rights commission and fined more than $6,600 for politely refusing, on religious grounds, to photograph a lesbian "commitment ceremony." We've seen similar charges brought by homosexuals against a video reproduction business in Virginia, a medical clinic in California, an adoption service in Arizona and a church in New Jersey.

Colorado tops them all on the potential outrage meter, however, because in addition to civil fines and penalties, small-business owners can be prosecuted under the criminal laws of Colorado and spend up to one year in jail for trying to live according to their faith.

To add insult to injury, your tax dollars will be used to prosecute these people of faith, and the legislature is expecting 30 complaints and three legal cases per year. We believe the people of Colorado would disapprove of small-business owners being hauled away to jail for refusing to promote messages contrary to their religious and moral beliefs, simply because they operate a small photography or other business.

None of us wants to see people humiliated or embarrassed because of how they appear in public and no one should be turned away from hotels, restaurants and other truly "public accommodations." But this law intrudes on the freedoms of conscience of untold numbers of people of faith, and the consequences for Colorado will be severe.

This law could be fixed if Democrats in the legislature wanted to work with conservatives to protect women and children, as well as the religious and moral beliefs of small- business owners.

Gov. Ritter should veto this version of the bill and ask the legislature to come back next year with something that we can all be proud of.

TAKE ACTION If you live in Colorado, please call Gov. Bill Ritter today and ask him to veto SB 200. If you can't get through with the first phone number listen, try the second. If you live outside Colorado, please e-mail the governor and ask him to veto this dangerous legislation. On the e-mail form, select "Share Your Opinion" from the drop-down menu.
Governor’s office (303) 866-2471
Evan Dreyer – governor’s spokesperson (720) 350-8370

Sending an email or making a phone call will only take a few minutes of your time but it can have a great impact on our children's future!