November 28, 2017

On December 5, the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) will hear oral arguments in Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission – a case about a person’s right to cite religious beliefs to gain exemption from existing laws and deny service to a fellow American.

Referring to the matter at the center of this case as religious freedom or religious liberty is deceptive and factually inaccurate branding started by anti-LGBTQ organizations and political strategists to obfuscate the actual harm that can and will be done to LGBTQ and other marginalized people under these exemptions. This is not a neutral framing of this debate, but is language that is driven by some of the most fringe and anti-LGBTQ organizations in the United States including Family Research Council, Mass Resistance, and Liberty Council. In contrast, the term religious exemptions is factually accurate and neutral. It does not take a particular side in this issue, and does not adopt the language of organizations squarely against LGBTQ rights.

GLAAD and the below signed organizations are writing to you today to ask that you use the more accurate terminology of religious exemptions for your readers, viewers, and listeners moving forward.

Our religious freedom and religious liberty values are already – and must continue to be – protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Religious exemption laws and court cases allow business owners to impose their religious beliefs on their employees, their customers, their patients, their constituents, and others. As a result, religious exemptions have in many cases become a vehicle for harming others or refusing to follow any number of laws that individuals and/or companies claim interfere with their religious beliefs – including nondiscrimination laws, healthcare laws, and even laws that protect public safety and prevent abuse.

Since 2016 alone, more than 135 anti-LGBTQ bills involving religious exemptions were introduced in statehouses around the United States, with only a handful becoming law. These bills have been introduced even as a majority of Americans have said, according to a poll conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), that they are opposed to policy makers using these bills to harm others.

Under religious exemption laws, a business owner can deny women reproductive health care services, reject a person of color’s housing or employment application, or refuse to give medical care to a child of two lesbian women.

With the upcoming Supreme Court case and an administration that prioritizes religious exemptions alongside groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a SPLC-designated hate group representing Masterpiece Cakeshop, now is the time to ask the nation’s media to use accurate phrasing instead of a misnomer aimed at miseducation. To do this, media should use religious exemptions to describe the upcoming Supreme Court case and related bills being considered around the country.

This is serious, and it is about more than a cake. It is about broad discrimination and the harms it could cause. The Masterpiece case will set the precedent for any debates on religious exemptions for generations to come for the United States, and it is vital the public understands what is at stake. Every story and interview by the media on this topic could shape minds and sway public majority behind protecting all Americans – not just a special and exempt few. Only the media can bring the full scope with what’s at stake for this nation if the U.S. Supreme Court were to let fringe influences dictate how we treat one another in this country.

We urge you to demonstrate responsibility in reporting and coverage by educating your audience that the SCOTUS case and related laws are about promoting religious exemptions for one American at the expense of many others.

The below organizations will be making a public call for mainstream media to report this issue with accuracy and fairness. That public call will continue as new stories are published. We would welcome the opportunity to speak with you and your editorial team on this matter.

Thank you,

GLAAD
Ad’ullam Church
Advocates for Youth
Alaskans Together For Equality
Basic Rights Oregon
Cathedral of Hope United Church of Christ
CenterLink: The Community of LGBT Centers
Color of Change
Equality Alabama
Equality Arizona
Equality California
Equality Federation
Equality Federation
Equality Florida
Equality New Mexico
Equality North Carolina
Equality Pennsylvania
Equality South Dakota
Equality Texas
Equality Virginia
Equality Maine
Family Equality Council
FORGE, Inc.
FreeState Justice
Georgia Equality
Keep Birth Control Copay Free
Mazzoni Center
Ms. Foundation for Women
National Black Justice Coalition
National Center for Lesbian Rights
National Center for Transgender Equality
National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs
National LGBTQ Task Force
One Colorado
OutFront Minnesota
Pillars Fund
Planned Parenthood
PROMO Missouri
Purpose
Southern Arizona Gender Alliance, Inc.
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
The Trevor Project
Transgender Law Center
Whitman-Walker Health
Women’s Equality Center