Leaked US EO draft permits discrimination against LGBTQ

A leaked draft executive order in the US regarding religious freedom will reportedly permit discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning (LGBTQ) communities. The draft is composed of four pages and is titled “Establishing a Government-Wide Initiative to Respect Religious Freedom.”

The new executive order would mean more comprehensive religious freedom protection. This applies to “any organisation, including closely held for-profit corporations, operated for a religious purpose, even if its purpose is not exclusively religious,” according to its leaked draft.

The draft remains to be just one until US President Donald Trump decides to have it approved. There is no official word yet if the leader of the free world will sign it or not.

New White House spokesman Sean Spicer refused to comment on it. “I’m not getting ahead of the executive orders that we may or may not issue,” he replied when asked earlier this week if a religious freedom executive order is on its way.

Meanwhile, officials from the White House have revealed through ABC News that the leaked draft on religious freedom executive order is only one of the many drafts circulating around the White House. It was made clear by officials that it does not necessarily mean that the administration is going for it and that they currently do not have intentions to sign any executive order. “We do not have plans to sign anything at this time but will let you know when we have any updates,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a White House spokesperson, maintained.

Based on the leaked draft, the executive order seeks to protect an individual or organisation that “believes, speaks, or acts (or declines to act) in accordance with the belief that marriage is or has to be perceived as the union of one man and one woman.” It further indicates that “sexual relations are properly reserved for such a marriage, male and female and their equivalents refer to an individual’s immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy, physiology, or genetics at or before birth, and that human life begins at conception and merits protection at all stages of life.”

Talks about the leaked information started on Wednesday after the White House made statement that commits Trump to keeping workplace discrimination protections intact, as the previous administration instituted to protect members of LGBTQ individuals. The draft executive order on religious freedom was published in partnership between the Nation and the Investigative Fund.