Fox News: You can oppose non-discrimination law because being LGBT is just a ‘belief’

By David Edwards
Thursday, October 31, 2013 13:39 EDT

Fox News anchor Bret Baier suggested to his viewers on Wednesday that a good reason to oppose a law to prevent discrimination against LGBT people was that “beliefs” like sexual orientation could “conflict with a company’s goals.”
During a segment on Fox News’ Special Report, Baier noted that Democrats were pushing to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and that meant “religious freedom” would “take a backseat to another kind of freedom.”
Reporter Shannon Bream pointed out that many religious institutions opposed the bill because they could be forced to “hire a transgender teacher.”
In fact, Section 6 of the act specifically provides exemptions for religion organizations.

SEC. 6. EXEMPTION FOR RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS.
This Act shall not apply to a corporation, association, educational institution or institution of learning, or society that is exempt from the religious discrimination provisions of title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq.) pursuant to section 702(a) or 703(e)(2) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 2000e-1(a), 2000e-2(e)(2)).

But Baier concluded the segment by posing this questions to his viewers: “So what do you think? Do you think businesses should be forced to hire whose beliefs conflict with that company’s goal?”
Watch this video from Fox News’ Special Report, broadcast Oct. 30, 2013.

David Edwards David Edwards David Edwards has served as an editor at Raw Story since 2006. His work can also be found at Crooks & Liars, and he's also been published at The BRAD BLOG. He came to Raw Story after working as a network manager for the state of North Carolina and as as engineer developing enterprise resource planning software. Follow him on Twitter at @DavidEdwards.