Anti-LGBT-discrimination law gets mixed reviews in Utah

A law backed by the Mormon church and gay rights activists that bars some forms of discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people went into effect in Utah this week.

The new law follows recent calls from rights activists for protections from prejudice in the handful of states like Utah where gay marriage is legal, but LGBT people still face housing and employment discrimination.

The legislation, which took effect on Tuesday, amends Utah’s existing anti-discrimination legislation to shield residents from being evicted or fired on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Religious-affiliated institutions — including schools and hospitals — are exempt from the provisions, as are small businesses.

Some LGBT Utah residents say they feel shortchanged by what the bill’s proponents have lauded as a model for cooperation between Christian conservatives and LGBT Americans.

Troy Williams, the director of the advocacy group Equality Utah, was one of the LGBT community leaders who met with officials of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to agree on anti-discrimination legislation.

“To move this legislation forward in one of the most conservative legislatures is an achievement,” he told Al Jazeera. Utah’s state Senate and House of Representatives are 86 percent and 83 percent Republican, respectively.

The UCLA Williams Institute, which researches policy and law related to sexual orientation and gender identity, estimates that there are 55,000 LGBT adults in Utah, 37,000 of whom are in the workforce.

Williams said the law’s exemptions for religious organization are “on par with federal exemptions.” Nationwide, “religions don’t have to hire female or gay clergy, for example. The exemptions are pretty standard,” he said.

“What’s significant about what we accomplished is that there was a model of cooperation or collaboration. Republicans and Democrats, Mormons and non-Mormons all sat together crafting this legislation with the intent to benefit all and harm none,” he said.

Despite religious leaders and rights activists reaching an agreement, some LGBT advocates expressed concerns that the legislation doesn’t do enough to protect LGBT residents from discrimination, especially in predominantly Mormon communities where the church owns schools and medical facilities.

The law protects against discrimination on the basis of “sexual orientation and gender identity, not gender expression,” said Kai Martinez, the director of the University of Utah’s LGBT Resource Center.

“Oftentimes when people face discrimination, it’s about expression,” Martinez said, explaining that identification is simply about calling oneself a woman, a man or something altogether different and that discrimination and crimes against LGBT people often occur when they dress or act in ways that non-LGBT people feel do not conform to gender norms.

“According to the folks who wrote [the legislation] and sat down with the predominant religious group, the Church of Latter-day Saints … said that if we left [gender expression] in there, this bill wouldn’t have passed,” Martinez said.

Although Martinez approves of Equality Utah’s achievements, the director wishes more transgender and non-gender-normative people had been asked to weigh in on the bid for greater protections.

Williams agreed with Martinez that despite advancements, “this is the beginning, not the end of where we’re going.” He contends that the Mormon church has not changed since it pushed for the passage in 2008 of California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in the state. Officially, the church maintains its stance against homosexuality.

But Kent Frogley, the director of advocacy group Utah Pride, disagreed. After opponents of Proposition 8 picketed the church’s headquarters in Salt Lake City, he said, religious leaders realized they were effectively pushing believers and community members away.

“I think they recognized they needed to take a more inclusive, Christ-like approach,” he said. “On the other hand, I think they are still a little schizophrenic.”

Salt Lake City, together with Mormon officials, in September will host the annual conference of World Congress of Families — a group that has helped push for anti-gay legislation around the globe and has been designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.