Leading Mental Health Organizations Urge an End to Harmful “Religious Freedom” Laws

The nation’s leading mental health professional organizations are expressing dismay over the spate of recent bills
and laws that would allow for individuals and businesses to deny services, employment and housing to LGBT people under the guise of religious freedom. Other states are proposing and enacting laws that would require transgender people to use public restrooms based on their sex assigned at birth. Also of serious concern is a bill recently passed by the Tennessee General Assembly that would allow mental health professionals to deny services to LGBT people based on a counselor’s religious beliefs.

These bills and laws run counter to the adopted policies of our organizations, which essentially state that we do not condone discrimination on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic status, or physical or emotional disability.

[gview file=”https://naswcanews.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/FEATURE-Joint-Statement-on-Religious-Freedom-Laws-posted-April-21.pdf”]