Hobby lobby and gay rights

In an unprecedented decision this week, the Supreme Court ruled that employers can use their religious beliefs to deny their employees access to benefits that they are guaranteed by law to receive. Hobby Lobby Case Background The two for-profit companies who brought this case to the Supreme Court are the arts-and-crafts chain store Hobby Lobby based in Oklahoma, and a custom wood cabinet company in Pennsylvania called Conestoga Wood Specialties. Hobby Lobby first challenged the federal contraception rule, arguing that covering certain forms of birth control including emergency contraception and IUDs violated their religious beliefs. Conestoga Wood Specialties had similar religious objections as Hobby Lobby.

However, the local Gay and Lesbian Alliance GALA is expressing concern about the store opening a location in San Luis Obispo, and the group is asking community members to shop somewhere else. Ruggles says Hobby Lobby has a history of taking out ads in newspapers and petitioning local, state and federal representatives to push their political views. They have a very narrow view of how the country should be run," said Ruggles. Ruggles says Hobby Lobby then pushed a number of religious organizations to petition for Obama to create a religious exemption.

Danielle Doza. The lower court decisions in favor of the employers will stand. Some of these employers are seeking to deny coverage for all contraceptives and even counseling and education related to contraception. Not only do some employers want to deny you birth control, they also want to make it even harder to educate yourself on it.

Our privacy statement is changing. Changes will be in effect July 31, Right now we are in a storm of contested rights, as businesses and institutions across the country ask for express legal permission to use religion to discriminate based on sexual orientation, sex, and gender identity. Last month, the Supreme Court heightened the storm by ruling that the Hobby Lobby corporation doesn't have to comply with the law and provide its workers with insurance that covers contraception, effectively enshrining into law that religion can be used to discriminate against women.