02-04-2025
Religious freedom bill advances after Arkansans say it will foster anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination
Attorney Stephanie Nichols (left) of the Family Council's Arkansas Justice Institute speaks in support of House Bill 1615, sponsored by Rep. Robin Lundstrum (second from right), R-Elm Springs, before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, April 1, 2025. Attorney Stephanie Taub (right) of the First Liberty Institute also supported the bill. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate)
An Arkansas House committee approved a bill Tuesday that supporters said would protect religious freedom, a day after the Senate rejected a bill with a similar stated goal.
House Bill 1615 will be heard by the full House Wednesday after passing the Judiciary Committee on a split voice vote following nearly an hour of public opposition. The bill would 'prohibit the government from discriminating against certain individuals and organizations because of their beliefs regarding marriage or what it means to be female or male.'
This would protect Arkansas government employees from adverse employment action if they refuse to do something within the context of their jobs that conflicts with their 'sincerely held religious beliefs,' such as providing a marriage license to a same-sex couple, according to the bill.
House Bill 1669, which had similar language regarding the 'sincerely held religious beliefs' of parents seeking to foster or adopt children in Arkansas, failed in the Senate Monday after passing a House committee, the full House and the Senate Judiciary Committee in March. The bill's Republican sponsors, Rep. Mary Bentley of Perryville and Sen. Alan Clark of Lonsdale, said HB 1669 would ensure Arkansas does not join the ranks of states in which parents who do not accept or affirm LGBTQ+ children's identities are not allowed to foster or adopt.
Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, said the bill would set a 'dangerous precedent' by shielding foster or adoptive parents from adverse government action if their faith-based actions harm children. He reminded the chamber that not all 'sincerely held religious beliefs' are Christian.
Fifteen Republican senators voted for the bill, which needed 18 votes to pass. Dismang and three other Republicans joined the chamber's six Democrats in voting against the bill. Five more Republicans did not vote and four voted present. The Senate later expunged the vote, and the bill is on the upper chamber's Wednesday agenda.
The original version of Act 733 of 2023 included language about foster care, adoption agencies and the issuing of marriage licenses similar to both HB 1669 and HB 1615. That legislation was amended to remove such specific language. Critics said it would not only empower anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination but also would contradict a similarly worded ballot measure that voters rejected in 2022.
Rep. Robin Lundstrum, R-Elm Springs, is the primary sponsor of Act 733 and HB 1615. Attorneys from the conservative First Liberty Institute and the Family Council's Arkansas Justice Institute supported Lundstrum in presenting the bill to the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
Attorney J.P. Tribell was the only opponent of Bentley's bill in the March 12 House committee hearing, but one of eight opponents of HB 1615 Tuesday.
'[There are] some rural counties where possibly everybody in the courthouse might be opposed to gay marriage, and if somebody wants to get a marriage license and they can find nobody, at what point do we determine that there's an undue burden on the person seeking a marriage license?' Tribell said. 'Do they have to drive two to three hours to get to Little Rock to do that?'
Civics educator Gail Choate said HB 1615 espouses the 'opposite logic' of Act 116 of 2025, which all but one of HB 1615's 13 sponsors supported. Act 116 prohibits public entities from engaging in identity-based 'discriminination' or 'preferential treatment' in contracting and hiring practices.
'This bill does not evaluate individuals based on their actions, their qualifications or their ability to contribute to society,' Choate said. 'It singles them out solely based upon their identity.'
Other opponents of the bill spoke on behalf of themselves or their loved ones in the LGBTQ+ community. Kaymo O'Connell, a transgender high school senior from Little Rock, expressed concern about experiencing employment discrimination upon entering the workforce in the near future.
HB 1615 allows government employees who issue marriage licenses to recuse themselves from doing so. Marie Mainard O'Connell, Kaymo's mother, said HB 1615 lacks a public notification process for such recusals.
'That's where the harm occurs,' she said. '[People] are harmed when they expect to be cared for, and then they are told, 'I don't believe that about you, I don't have to care for you that way.' That creates a moment of trauma.'
Social worker Kirsten Sowell and therapist Courtney Frierson said HB 1615 would create a conflict between their ethical codes, which include acceptance of LGBTQ+ people, and the fact that the state issues their professional licenses.
'If my licensing board receives a complaint based on someone's religious disagreement with my inclusive care, who are they supposed to protect: me or the complainant?' Frierson said. 'That's a legal gray zone, and it's not theoretical, it's coming.'
No members of the public or of the House Judiciary Committee spoke in favor of HB 1615. Opposition on the committee primarily came from its Democrats, including Rep. Nicole Clowney of Fayetteville, who called it 'blatant viewpoint discrimination.'
'We heard a lot of abstract ideas about religious freedom [today],' she said. 'We did not hear from one person who is for this bill who is currently being persecuted.'
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