ANALYSIS: Did Obama finally thread the needle on gay rights and religious freedom?

[rug]

By David Gibson | Religion News Service July 21 at 4:42 PM

One of the toughest political calculations in Washington is balancing competing claims of gay rights with the traditional prerogatives of religious freedom. After a number of setbacks on that front, President Obama may have finally found a small patch of middle ground with Monday’s (July 21) move to bar federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation.

Obama’s executive order shields gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees from discrimination by companies that do work for the federal government by adding sexual orientation and gender identity to long-standing protections from bias based on “race, color, religion, sex or national origin.”

Yet Monday’s action also leaves in place a 2002 order signed by President George W. Bush that gives religious groups with federal contracts some leeway by allowing them to use religious beliefs as a criterion in making hiring and firing decisions; as a candidate in 2008 Obama pledged to overturn that exemption.

At the same time, Obama did not expand the exemption to explicitly allow religious groups that receive federal funds to use sexual orientation as grounds for hiring and firing, as some demanded.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/analysis-did-obama-finally-thread-the-needle-on-gay-rights-and-religious-freedom/2014/07/21/7efaf974-1117-11e4-ac56-773e54a65906_story.html

[cbayer]

1. Let's hope so.

I think these groups are going to live to regret their trying to legitimize their bigotry.

But we will have to wait and see how this plays out.

[Humanist_Activist]

2. No, he should have abolished this federally funded faith based crap entirely...

religious exemptions should never exist outside of houses of worship themselves.

ON EDIT: And that exemption should fall under "private clubs" exemptions, not some special category for religions. Freedom of association.

[hrmjustin]

3. I am glad he did what he did. I had a friend at the signing yesterdauy in the White House.