Patchwork Protections in Kansas: The Rise of Religious Exemption Laws Demands State-Level LGBTQ+ Antidiscrimination Protections
![handle is hein.journals/kjpp30 and id is 136 raw text is: PATCHWORK PROTECTIONS IN KANSAS: THE RISE OF
RELIGIOUS EXEMPTION LAWS DEMANDS STATE-LEVEL
LGBTQ+ ANTIDISCRIMINATION PROTECTIONS
By: Delaney Hiegert*
I. INTRODUCTION
The evening of June 26, 2015, the White House was illuminated in
rainbow colors.' A crowd gathered outside the lawn, looking at the lights and
celebrating the historic Obergefell v. Hodges decision that came down earlier
that day.2 The Supreme Court's Obergefell decision confirmed that the
fundamental right to marry applied to same-sex couples.3 But it also fueled the
flames of the anti-LGBTQ+4 rights movement.5
This movement's most vocal supporters are the Religious Right, a
conservative coalition of Protestants and Catholics.6 The Religious Right's
anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric has existed in our country for decades.7 However, their
* J.D. Candidate 2021, University of Kansas School of Law; B.A. 2018, Newman University.
Delaney wishes to thank Professor Kyle Velte for her invaluable guidance on this article. They
are also grateful to the Board and staff members of the Journal for the time and effort that went
into preparing this article for print.
1 Allie Malloy & Karl de Vries, White House Shines Rainbow Colors to Hail Same-Sex Marriage
Ruling, CNN POL. (June 30, 2015, 1:33 PM), https://www.cnn.com/2015/06/26/politics/white-
house-rainbow-marriage/index.html [https://penna.cc/PY6C-JWMC].
2 Id
3 Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S. Ct. 2584, 2604-05 (2015). In a historic 5-4 decision, the Supreme
Court affirmed that the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage. Id at 2629. The
decision, penned by Justice Anthony Kennedy, ended a years-long legal battle over the right to
marry. Id. at 2593.
4 This article will use LGBTQ+ as the acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and
queer. The term queer here is used as a multifaceted term that may refer to an attraction
toward people of many genders, a challenge to the status quo, and/or a claim to not conforming to
cultural norms around sexual orientation. Erin S. Lavender-Stott, Erika L. Grafsky, Hoa N.
Nguyen, Emily Wacker & Sarah M. Steelman, Challenges and Strategies of Sexual Minority
Youth Research in Southwest Virginia, 65 J. HOMOSEXUALITY 691, 693 (2018). The + is used
to signal an inclusion of all other communities often left out of our initialisms, like two-spirit or
asexual identities and intersex people.
s See Terri R. Day & Danielle Weatherby, LGBT Rights and the Mini RFRA: A Return to
Separate but Equal, 65 DEPAUL L. REV. 907, 908 (2016).
6 Religious Right, ASS'N OF RELIGIOUS DATA ARCHIVES, http://www.thearda.com/timeline/
movements/movement_17.asp [https://penna.cc/QR5T-4C5E].
Kyle Velte, All Fall Down: A Comprehensive Approach to Defeating the Religious Right's
128](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/kjpp30&div=10&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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