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Michigan Considering Bill to Refuse Gays Medical Care

nogutsnoglory

Moderator
This is incredibly disturbing and passed it's first hurdle in the house and now onto the senate. If this passes LGBT people can be denied medical services and emergency treatment. How would they even know if one is gay or is it based on perception?

"The US Supreme Court used the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act as the basis for its Hobby Lobby decision which allowed some private corporations to refuse to follow the ACA mandate for providing contraceptive coverage in health plans. A number of states have adopted versions of a state level RFRA. Now the Michigan legislature is considering a bill for an RCFA that would allow "freedom of conscience" to refuse to provide a wide range of services to gays, including emergency medical treatment. The bill has been passed by the house and is now in the senate."

http://m.dailykos.com/story/2014/12...Right-To-Withhold-Medical-Treatment-From-Gays
 

afidz

Super Moderator
I don't think the US goverment will allow it to pass. Its absolutely absurd. Its unconstitutional. Whats next? Segregation? Might as well be if they allow that to pass.
I am not a law student, but isn't that a violation of civil rights?
 

nogutsnoglory

Moderator
It should absolutely be considered unconstitutional but this is the latest trend. Discrimination bills in health or employment because the marriage fight is pretty much a lost cause for opponents.

This bill already passed the house, I think the senate and governor are republican so it may go into law. How does one even know someone's orientation? This is downright scary.
 

Cat-a-Tonic

Super Moderator
This is horrifying and it has scary ramifications too. If they decide it's okay to discriminate against LGBT people, then ostensibly they could also make the case to discriminate against whatever other subset of people (race, gender, religion, etc) that they want to. This is horrible for everyone. Stuff like this (plus the healthcare thing) sometimes makes me want to move to Canada. Ugh.
 

nogutsnoglory

Moderator
These bills of which there are 20+ variations making their way around the country are so open ended that one could say "oh sorry you aren't a follower of my God and so I can't treat you"

Even if most doctors and nurses would never do this it would only take a few claiming religious exemption and people can die in the process or miss out on much needed care. This is so crazy I want to hop on a plane to Michigan right now and yell at these politicians!
 
I've got my fingers crossed that this dies before ever making it into the lawbooks.

The First Amendment already protects religious freedom so this is completely unnecessary. I don't see it doing any good at all. It'll create more bad blood between the religious folks and the LGBT community. And there will most definitely be legal battles as a result.

The governor here is a Republican, but he's also trying to stimulate our state economy. Hopefully he'll realize we don't need this kind of thing making messes for our legal system and encouraging more of our young talent to seek employment out of state.
 

afidz

Super Moderator
There is no way the supreme court will let this happen. If it does become law, it will take some time for the supreme court to over turn it but it is unconstitutional. I can't believe that this is even happening.
 

nogutsnoglory

Moderator
It's a disturbing trend and other states are considering it. I just don't get it. If a person doesnt like/agree with gay people that's their right but not providing medical care? It's beyond insane and where does it end? I hope your tuft that it wouldn't stand if it passed.
 

afidz

Super Moderator
Its barbaric! They are saying that they are okay with letting gay people die. If someone needs an ambulance they aren't exactly of good health and are too sickly to drive themselves. And its not like gay men and women walk around with the word "GAY" or "LESBIAN" tattooed across their forehead. So what, if a straight person comes off as a little flamboyant in the way the talk or show interest in something "unmanly" while they are of poor health the EMT's are just going to say "you act like you are gay, I am refusing to help you". I am smelling lawsuits, and lots of them. There are so many metrosexual men that one would think are gay but aren't. (Same thing with women).

When I first read this headline, I really thought it was a joke. A Facebook hoax. I can not believe this is really what is happening in our country.
 
Virginia now has a similar bill pending http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/...let_schools_and_hospitals_turn_gays_away.html There is a petition and only a few days to try to stop this anti-gay bill
https://go.allout.org/en/a/virginia/
I am curious about the claim that this is a religious right (to deny treating gays). Does this mean that if my religion says women don't have the same rights as men, I can deny services to them? If my religion says women should not drive and I work at the DMV, can I deny giving them a driver's license?

How is denying life saving medical treatment to a gay person on religous grounds different than murdering journalists at a Paris newspaper on religous grounds?
 

DustyKat

Super Moderator
Agreed jwfoise!

It is no different. It is another nail in the coffin for tolerance, decency, compassion and liberty all in the name of religion.

Imagine.
 

valleysangel92

Moderator
Staff member
I totally cannot believe I am reading this, it's totally ridiculous, what happened to the Hippocratic oath? I'm not really sure how things work over there, but surely your government will stop this? They can't seriously be that pig headed can they?

If something like that started happening here, we'd have our government, and then the European Court of human rights to protect us, do you guys have anything similar? Doesn't being a member of the UN mean the country is bound to the human right Charter?

I'm so sorry that you guys have to deal with this kind of thing, that level of discrimination is sickening.
 

nogutsnoglory

Moderator
The US doesn't generally get involved in international courts, we think we are above that apparently. The problem is the ideological divide in the country. Half believe in a federal government and half believe individual states can do whatever they please no matter how awful.
 

valleysangel92

Moderator
Staff member
I know you dont have the international court like we do, I was meaning more like a higher court that can get involved with things like that beyond the federal government?

That's kind of like in the UK, we have some people who think each country within the UK should just do whatever they want to and some who think we should all be controlled by the Central government in London. We kind of have it somewhere in the middle at the moment.

I really hope this lunatic scheme is stopped, it's really scary to think of the president it would set if it got through.
 
I know you dont have the international court like we do, I was meaning more like a higher court that can get involved with things like that beyond the federal government?
If the law is passed, it could be challenged in US courts as to whether it was against the US Constitution (though some person or group would have to decide to challenge it). Generally, such a challenge would first go to a US District Court (which covers the state in question), then could be appealed to an appellate court, and finally to the US Supreme Court. The Supreme Court would have the final say on it.

As nogutsnoglory said, the US has generally ignored international courts, such as The International Court of Justice, even when we have signed treaties support them. From the wikipedia article on the ICJ:
The Court's workload covers a wide range of judicial activity. After the court ruled that the U.S.'s covert war against Nicaragua was in violation of international law (Nicaragua v. United States), the United States withdrew from compulsory jurisdiction in 1986. The United States accepts the court's jurisdiction only on a case-by-case basis.[3] Chapter XIV of the United Nations Charter authorizes the UN Security Council to enforce Court rulings. However, such enforcement is subject to the veto power of the five permanent members of the Council, which the United States used in the Nicaragua case.
Most commonly, while such an appeal process is going on, the courts will have enforcement of the law suspended until such time as a final decision is reached, but that is up to the particularly court, and is not absolute.
 
I highly doubt this will pass, but even just the creation of such trash is disgusting. It baffles me that this is how some government officials choose to spend their time. How about focusing on things that MATTER?? Instead of taking basic rights away from people just because you're narrow-minded.
 
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