by Wyatt Ronan •
Last night, the South Dakota Senate passed Senate Bill 124, a religious refusal bill that would grant a license to discriminate against LGBTQ people across a wide range of goods and services. The bill now heads to Governor Kristi Noem’s desk for signature or veto. In 2015, then-Governor of Indiana Mike Pence signed a similar piece of legislation into law that encouraged widespread discrimination from medical providers, child welfare providers, businesses, government officials and taxpayer-funded entities. Mississippi also passed a RFRA in 2016. As reported by The 19th, this bill is among 36 anti-LGBTQ “religious freedom” measures coursing through state legislatures as part of a national flood of anti-LGBTQ legislation as part of an effort by national, far-right extremist groups to sow fear and division for political gain.
Indiana passed a similar bill which cost them $60m in lost revenue
Voters strongly disapproved of Indiana’s religious refusal law and punished Pence for signing it
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