2016 GOP candidates walk tightrope on religious liberty debate

After a national uproar over Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Republican governors have walked back their support of such contentious legislation, asking state lawmakers for clarifications or amendments to make clear that the bills do not permit discrimination against LGBT individuals, as critics have alleged.

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence called for additional wording that would make explicit that the religious freedoms under the umbrella of the law do not include giving businesses the right to deny services to gay people. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchison asked lawmakers to amend a pending bill that would bring the state version of the religious liberty bill more in line with the narrower 1993 federal version before he would sign it. And North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory went one step further and said he opposed his state’s version of the measure. "What is the problem they're trying to solve?” he asked on a local radio show.

But it might not be as easy for the likely 2016 Republican contenders who have lined up in staunch defense of the laws. The tactic is a risky one, some have warned, as the Republican Party works to moderate its stances on gay issues.

In 2004 same-sex marriage may have been the litmus test for where candidates stood on gay issues; in 2016 it may be their embrace — or rejection — of statutes perceived to discriminate against LGBT people.  

“We’re headed to the point where a political candidate who is perceived as anti-gay at the presidential level will never connect with people under 30 years old,” Republican pollster Whit Ayres told reporters Tuesday morning at a Washington breakfast.

Ayres, who is advising Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, said the key was for candidates to adopt “a tolerant and accepting tone” when laying out their moral beliefs. He added that he believed the 2016 candidates were merely speaking out in support of a fellow Republican.

“What you’re seeing is support for a man whose values and judgment they know are in tune with the values of Indiana voters and they have confidence in the ability for the process and for Mike Pence to work this out,” he said. “This thing is not going to stand, it sounds like, as it is currently written.”

Nonetheless, the 2016 GOP candidates were more or less unequivocal in their support for the Indiana law, which its detractors insist was designed with discrimination in mind and is much broader than the 1993 federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The Indiana measure, as written, would allow a for-profit business or corporation to claim religious beliefs and for the law to be invoked as a defense in private litigation. None of the 2016 contenders registered any objections to those provisions.   

“This is simply allowing people of faith space to be able to express their beliefs, to be able to be people of conscience. I just think once the facts are established, people aren’t going to see this as discriminatory at all,” former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Monday. “This is really an important value in a diverse country, where you can respect and be tolerant of people’s lifestyles but allow for people of faith to be able to exercise theirs.”

Rubio chimed in with his views, saying businesses should not be compelled to cater to “a wedding that their faith teaches them is not one that is valid in the eyes of God.”

“I think people have a right to live out their religious faith in their own lives. They can’t impose it on you and your life, but they have a right to live it out in their own lives,” he told Fox News. “And when you’re asking someone who provides professional services to do something or be punished by law that violates their faith, you’re violating that religious liberty that they have.”

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said in a statement that he was proud to stand “with millions of courageous conservatives across this country who are deeply concerned about the ongoing attacks upon our personal liberties.”

Still, others heralded the backlash from the business community — often seen as aligned with the Republican Party — as a marker of how far the country has come on gay rights.  

“It’s a sign of the progress. You’ve seen everyone from [Apple CEO] Tim Cook down to a critical mass of everyday folks in Indiana who are just fed up with this needless and dangerous and job-killing legislation,” said Adam Talbot, a spokesman for Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT advocacy group. “This is not something that any serious candidate for national office can support.”