Anderson: "The ENDA Agenda"

On Thursday at The National Review Online, Ryan T. Anderson from Heritage - and co-author of What is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense - took on ”The ENDA Agenda.”

Ryan points out a remarkable confluence where “conservatives and libertarians alike oppose this bill,” explaining why:

Of course, employers should respect the intrinsic dignity of all their employees. But ENDA is bad public policy. Its threats to our freedoms unite civil libertarians concerned about free speech and religious liberty, free marketers concerned about freedom of contract and government interference in the marketplace, and social conservatives concerned about marriage and culture[.]

Ryan then spells out the connection between ENDA and threats to traditional marriage believers on the basis of precedents we’ve seen set by local and state legislation of a similar kind to ENDA:

It is hard to square ENDA’s basic purpose with any robust protection of citizens’ rights to speak freely of religious or moral convictions about marriage and sexuality. Indeed Americans are paying the price where their state or local governments have passed sexual-orientation and gender-identity statutes.

You can read the entire piece here.