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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 30, 2023
CONTACT:
Mynellies Negrón | +1 703 585 6727 | mynellies@communicationsshop.us
Today’s Supreme Court ruling stating that the First Amendment grants Colorado businesses open to the public a constitutional right to deny services to LGBTQ+ individuals is a threat to all anti-discrimination efforts. Alianza Americas, a network of 57 organizations led by migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean, stands in support of equal rights and protections for LGBTQ+ people in the United States and around the world. This includes the right not to be denied services based on sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression. Efforts to protect these rights have been undermined by today’s decision by the Supreme Court. Religious beliefs are unique to an individual’s personal life, but when services are denied to another person based on them, the exercise of freedom of speech becomes an act of discrimination. LGBTQ+ people have equal rights as the rest of the population, and their rights should also have been protected by the Supreme Court.
“Any recognition of a right to discriminate against people based on religious beliefs is a blow to equal protection for all members of our society and a particular threat to those who are most often marginalized or otherwise disenfranchised,” says Alex Córdova, executive director of LILA LGBTQ Inc. “Allowing for religious “exceptions” as a shield for discrimination opens the door to all sorts of unforeseeable exceptions and undermines the very principle of anti-discrimination by creating carve outs where discrimination is considered permissible or even celebrated.”
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Alianza Americas is the premier transnational advocacy network of Latin American migrant-led organizations working in the United States, across the Americas, and globally to create an inclusive, equitable and sustainable way of life for communities across North, Central and South America.
