HB4188, HB4189 and HB4190 - All 3 bills relate to the adoption and licensure of child placing agencies that object to placements on religious or moral grounds

Date Enacted: 11 June 2015 - All 3 bills were signed into law by Governor Rick Snyder.

Description:

• All 3 bills amend the MI social welfare act so that adoption and foster agencies do not have to place children with gay and lesbian parents/families if they claim that they have so-called religious objections to doing so.
• The bills allow taxpayer funded adoption agencies to discriminate against LGBT people. 
• Currently, adoption agencies receive about $10 million annually via state and federal funds. On any given day in Michigan, about 14,000 children are in foster care, according to Equality Michigan.

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act

Author/Sponsor: Representative Jase Bolger
Date Introduced: 13 November 2014
Date Enacted: 4 December 2014

Description:

• A bill to limit governmental action that substantially burdens a person's exercise of religion; to set forth legislative findings; to provide for asserting a burden on exercise of religion as a claim or defense in any judicial or administrative proceeding; and to provide remedies.
• This bill is what is commonly referred to as a "license to discriminate" bill. This bill is very similar to the one that made nationwide headlines in Arizona, which was vetoed by Gov. Jan Brewer. The bill appears to merely force the government to step aside if a person's "deeply-held religious beliefs" mandate they act, or not act, in a certain manner.
• From David Badash at The New Civil Rights Movement: "Supporters of these bills claim they allow people of faith to exercise their religion without government interference, but in reality, they are trojan horses, allowing rampant discrimination under the guise of religious observance."