New Bill Could Let Bosses Fire Single Moms

Following the excellent Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage, there has unfortunately been a lot of political backlash against the LGBT community, and now a new anti-LGBT bill could also allow employers to fire unmarried pregnant women and single mothers. Because in case you never got the message, this is the 1950s, and we still operate under the assumption that if you don't conform to a strict code of Christian morals you don't deserve to have any rights. It's the American way.

The new bill is gaining momentum in the House of Representatives where it was introduced by Republican representatives. Titled the First Amendment Defense Act, it intended to make it illegal for the federal government to punish private schools, churches, or charities for expressing their opposition to same-sex marriage, including discriminating against LGBT employees. The bill's language, however, is so broad that it could also allow employers to fire women who have children without being married.

The bill's language specifically protects people who believe that "one man and one woman" and "sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage." Which was intended to make it OK to discriminate against LGBT people, but also could clearly apply to single mothers as well. And it could even make it difficult for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to properly protect women from sex-based discrimination.

The bill's author, Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), has strongly denied that it could be used to discriminate against unwed mothers. He told the Huffington Post, “It's just allowing people to continue to believe the way they do." Other sponsors have stated that the bill is intended to protect people with certain religious beliefs from persecution. By allowing them to persecute other people. Because obviously if you aren't allowed to persecute someone, you yourself are being persecuted. That's how this whole thing works, right?

This bill is obviously terrible, and it would be terrible whether or not the broad language opened the door for pregnant women to lose their jobs or interfered with the EEOC to protect women in the workplace. However, this fact makes the bill extra awful by potentially victimizing even more people.

It does, however highlight at least one important fact: Advocating for so-called "traditional marriage" isn't just bigoted against LGBT people; it also demonstrates a complete lack of recognition that society has changed some in the past 60 years, and same-sex marriage isn't the only so-called non-traditional thing about the modern family. And that is OK, I promise. You don't have to keep trying to pass legislation that tries to punish the 21st century for being different than the 20th.

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