Author	Thread: A Tennessee store put up a "no gays allowed" sign � and it's totally legal
Admin	A Tennessee store put up a "no gays allowed" sign � and it's totally legal Posted : 1 Jul, 2015 11:08 AM A Tennessee store put up a "no gays allowed" sign � and it's totally legal Sourced ~ http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-tennessee-store-put-up-a-no-gays-allowed-sign-%e2%80%94-and-its-totally-legal/ar-AAcqKTG After the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriagein all 50 states, a store in Grainger County, Tennessee, put up a sign with a terrible message: "No gays allowed." Jeff Amyx, a baptist minister who owns Amyx Hardware & Roofing Supplies, told WBIR 10 News that he put up the sign because he's religiously opposed to gay and lesbian couples, and that he has no intent of taking the sign down. The storeowner's actions invoke memories of similar signs that were used in the South prior to the Civil Rights Movement to enforce segregation, which is now illegal under federal law. But unlike discrimination against black people and other racial minorities, this type of discrimination against gay and lesbian people is totally legal � not just in Tennessee, but most other states in the US. 31 states don't fully ban discrimination against sexual orientation or gender identity Thirty-one states lack civil rights laws that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in the workplace, housing, or public accommodations (hotels, stores, and other places that serve the general public). As a result, more than half of LGBTQ Americans, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ advocacy group, live in a state where an employer can legally fire someone because he's gay, a landlord can legally evict someone because she's lesbian, and a hotel manager can legally deny service to someone who's transgender � for no reason other than the person's sexual orientation or gender identity. Related The next frontier in LGBTQ rights: It's legal to fire someone for being gay in 28 states Currently, 19 states ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, while three additional states ban discrimination based on sexual orientation. Some other states protect public but not private employees from discrimination. Many municipalities have nondiscrimination laws that only apply within their local borders, even in states that don't have such laws. And some companies prohibit discrimination in their own policies. The protections can further vary from state to state. Massachusetts's protections for gender identity and Utah's protections for sexual orientation and gender identity don't apply to public accommodations. Some states also include exemptions for discrimination based on religious grounds. Enforcement varies, as well: Depending on the state, private lawsuits, fines, and jail time are all possible forms of punishment for discrimination. These nondiscrimination protections build on existing federal and state laws � most notably the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which protects people from discrimination based on their race, color, national origin, religion, and sex. (Some advocates believe the Civil Rights Act already protects LGBTQ workers, but the argument has yet to be affirmed in court.) Most Americans (wrongly) think anti-LGBTQ discrimination is illegal Surveys show that most Americans widely support nondiscrimination protections, but a major hurdle to getting the laws passed may be that Americans already think they're in place. In a 2014 poll from YouGov and the Huffington Post, 62 percent of respondents said it was already illegal under federal law to fire someone for being gay or lesbian, 14 percent said it was legal, and 25 percent weren't sure. The same poll found most Americans � 76 percent � said it should be illegal to fire someone for being gay or lesbian, while just 12 percent said it should be legal. The YouGov and Huffington Post poll isn't the first to find strong support for civil rights protections for LGBTQ people. Another 2014 survey commissioned by HRC, an LGBTQ advocacy group, found 63 percent of US voters favored a federal law that protects LGBTQ people from employment discrimination, while just 25 percent opposed it. For LGBTQ advocates, the overall results present a tricky situation: Most Americans support nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people, but they don't appear to know that these protections aren't already law. "When people already think these protections are in place, it can be difficult to work up the motivation that's necessary to push for them," Ian Thompson, LGBTQ legislative director at the American Civil Liberties Union, said in April. So in the case of Amyx Hardware & Roofing Supplies, the owner's actions are totally legal � even if most Americans think they're not and shouldn't be. X <>< O Post Reply
View Profile History	A Tennessee store put up a "no gays allowed" sign � and it's totally legal Posted : 2 Jul, 2015 01:19 PM Hmmm, just wow! Jesus is coming for his spotless bride soon. Post Reply
View Profile History	A Tennessee store put up a "no gays allowed" sign � and it's totally legal Posted : 2 Jul, 2015 01:37 PM He actually replaced the sign with another after receiving many threats. It reads like this: We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone who would violate our rights of freedom of speech and freedom of religion. I got the info on "theblaze" Post Reply
View Profile History	A Tennessee store put up a "no gays allowed" sign � and it's totally legal Posted : 3 Jul, 2015 08:41 AM Hummm...So...does that make him "Politicaly Correct" now ???...:rolleyes:...Gota admit it is a WAY nicer way of saying what you mean while standing firm. Gods continued Grace!!!...:yay: X <>< O Post Reply
View Profile History	A Tennessee store put up a "no gays allowed" sign � and it's totally legal Posted : 6 Jul, 2015 10:42 AM Well ya! "Way nice"r is always best when standing up against a tyranical beast. It seems to confuse em:excited: Post Reply
View Profile History	A Tennessee store put up a "no gays allowed" sign � and it's totally legal Posted : 29 Jul, 2015 10:36 AM I'm not going to put a sign in my window saying that I'm not going to allow lesbians or gays or whatever but as a business I still have a right to deny business if I want because I am a private business. It is completely the customers choice whether they come in or not. They can just go somewhere else. How has a group that is only 5% of our population gotten so much pull in what happens in out country? A lot of people in that community trash Christians and denies Christians services all the time and yet somehow the Christians are the bad people because we don't want to offer them a service based on our beliefs. It's our right since we live in a free country. The right to support our beliefs. Same goes to people of a different sexual orientation then us. Whether it's a gay bakery denying a Christian service and swearing at them and calling them names and saying we don't work with "your" kind of people because we want a Christian message on a cake (there are numerous videos of the conversations with multiple businesses with gay owners doing that all across our country) in which case we leave and go somewhere else or a Christian business refusing services to a gay wedding because it goes against their beliefs. I think it all boils down too if you are a private business you have the right to set the rules. I met someone who had a room they rent out and one of the rules is if you aren't straight you can't have your significant other living with you here or if you are unmarried you can't have you significant other living with you here. They own the apartment. It's their choice who they let stay there. Just like if a gay owner didn't want a Christian or something staying there. Whether one if denied service needs to go both ways instead of if a homosexual doesn't want to serve someone for whatever reason it's their right but if a Christian denies service to someone we're suddenly the enemy. It goes both ways. It should be the private businesses choice. Post Reply
View Profile History	A Tennessee store put up a "no gays allowed" sign � and it's totally legal Posted : 29 Jul, 2015 10:40 AM In saying that though I do know some very nice people who are gay and lesbian and I wouldn't be against having customers that were a different sexual orientation then me but I just wouldn't provide services for wedding but for just about anything else I would. Post Reply