[JURIST] The Kentucky Senate [official website] on Tuesday approved a bill [text, PDF] allowing businesses to refuse service to gays and lesbians based upon their religious beliefs. The amended bill, which will be a new section to KRS 446 [materials], was created with the intent to protect certain guaranteed rights. In particular, the bill stated that “the government shall not substantially burden a person’s freedom of religion or any other protected rights absent clear and convincing evidence of a compelling governmental interest furthered by the least restrictive means” by requiring they conduct certain “protected activities” for homosexuals. When read in conjunction with KRS 466.350 [text, PDF], which states that the “right to act or refuse to act in a manner motivated by a sincerely held religious belief” shall not be burdened without substantial governmental interest, the bill will allow certain business owners to refrain from providing certain “customized, artistic, expressive, creative, ministerial, or spiritual goods or services” to LGBT individuals. The bill also prohibits individuals denying their services from civil or criminal penalties.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights, as well as freedom of religious practice, remain controversial issues in the US. At least nineteen states have enacted some variety of religious freedom laws, most modeled after the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act [text] signed into law by Bill Clinton in 1993. Last Friday Missouri lawmakers approved a proposal [JURIST report] to provide similar religious protections to individuals and businesses in opposition to gay marriage. Last month the Georgia Senate passed [JURIST report] a bill similar to the Missouri Senate bill, which would give religious leaders the right to refuse to marry any couple if it is against their religion without facing penalties and bars the government from taking any adverse action against any person who acts in accordance with their religious views towards marriage. Earlier this year, an Indiana legislative committee approved a bill [JURIST report] that would repeal the controversial religious freedom law passed last year. Following the US Supreme Court [official website] ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges [JURIST report] in June, Kentucky clerk Kim Davis refused to issue [JURIST report] marriage licenses, arguing that her Christian faith should exempt her from issuing the licenses to same-sex couples. Also in June North Carolina lawmakers passed SB 2, a law that permits magistrates to refuse to perform same-sex marriages on religious grounds, overriding a veto [JURIST reports] by Governor Pat McCrory.