What's next for LGBTQ+ vs. religious rights? Lawsuits

By Noah Feldman / Bloomberg Opinion

The Supreme Court’s decision in 303 Creative v. Elenis, in which the court created a free-speech-based exemption from the civil rights laws, is intended to give permanent shape to the conservative majority’s gay rights jurisprudence. What does that mean for the future of LGBTQ+ equality?

On the one hand, the basic elements of the gay rights movement’s judicial victories will remain in place. Gay marriage will remain protected, and LGBTQ+ people will be covered by civil rights laws. On the other, anyone who can claim a conscientious objection to respecting gay rights is going to get a free pass to keep right on discriminating.

It’s significant that the 303 Creative majority opinion was written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the conservative justice who wrote the 2020 Bostock decision protecting gay and trans people against workplace discrimination. Gorsuch isn’t so much contradicting himself as proposing what he must imagine is a cultural compromise. He is hoping that gay people will be satisfied with equality rights and that those who have opposed gay rights will be satisfied with the opt-out the court has given them.

But in practice, the “compromise” won’t be a stable equilibrium. It will keep fights about gay and trans rights in the courts — and in the news — for the foreseeable future.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-whats-next-for-lgbtq-vs-religious-rights-lawsuits/