By TATYANNA CABRAL
Imagine walking into a restaurant and having all of the employees refuse to serve you. Now imagine that they are not serving you because you are gay. This may seem odd, but that is what is happening in Kansas: denying services to same – sex couples may possibly become legal in Kansas.
House Bill 2453 protects those who refuse to serve to same-sex couples, like businesses or religious individuals, mostly the people who are looking to get married. Even though gay marriage is banned in Kansas, they still have these policies. It may not make sense to others, but that is how it is in Kansas.
It was created mainly to protect people and their religious beliefs. If it goes against their religious beliefs, they would be able to refuse to serve them. If a firefighter comes to someone’s house and saysays that they were gay, they could say that serving for them is against their religion and that they are living in sin so therefore, they could burn and die in the house. Now that is a lot to take in, and it is segregation all over again.
Another issue is that in a small business, if one of their employees are gay, employers can just tell them that their religion says that they are supposed to hate them so they are going to fire them. It is one thing to refuse to take pictures at a gay wedding, but it is a whole different thing to fire someone from a job because they are gay. In other states like Idaho, who has similar policies, people are not allowed to do that, but Kansas is taking it to the extreme and says that people can, too.
It is not only small businesses, but it can be an AMC movie theatre, a McDonald’s or anything in that area. They could turn down the gay couples at the door. In reality, they can not go anywhere. It is like saying that they are not a citizen anymore. It will be like going back to the 1950’s, where the blacks had their own water fountains and bathrooms. If gay couples can not go anywhere in Kansas, that sounds like how it may end up.
It is like the gay couples in Kansas can no longer live there anymore. Segregation is coming back, and much worse. This may be very difficult to stop, and may not be able to be stopped.
