Dear Friend,

We recently told you about some of the amazing, unsung work AU’s Policy team does for church-state separation every day in our nation’s capital. But the Policy team is also tirelessly working to stop harmful bills and promote helpful bills in every state legislature across the country.

I asked Nik Nartowicz, our State Policy Counsel, about the flood of bad legislation he’s been battling and this is what I learned. Since the state legislative season began in January, Americans United has been tracking more than 1,500 bills, most of which are advanced by religious extremists and their lawmaker allies who are trying to force all of us to live by their narrow beliefs. Here are the top 5 worst of the worst:

— Teaching Intelligent Design in Public Schools: Intelligent design (ID) is an inherently religious doctrine that has no place in public schools. Despite a case nearly 20 years ago in which AU successfully sued a school district that implemented ID in public schools, West Virginia legislators almost passed a bill this year that would have let any teacher preach ID in their classroom. Thankfully, after AU and allies urged legislators to vote no, the bill died when the legislature adjourned without passing it.

— Anti-LGBTQ Bills: Fueled by Christian Nationalist rhetoric, nearly 400 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced this year. Particularly harmful are anti-trans bills aimed at restricting transgender people’s health care access and full participation in school life. Just one example is the anti-trans Millstone Act in Oklahoma, which the sponsor named after a Bible passage, an allusion meant to threaten doctors with violence. It’s a violation of church-state separation for legislators to enshrine their personal religious beliefs into our laws, especially if those laws license discrimination and harm people.

— Private School Vouchers: Emboldened by recent Supreme Court decisions, Christian Nationalists are pushing private school voucher plans like never before. Already this year, Arkansas, Utah, and Iowa have created new voucher programs, and Florida passed a bill to expand its voucher schemes that could cost $4 billion. We’re still fighting voucher bills in states like Texas, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Missouri. Private school vouchers bills funnel desperately needed public resources away from our public schools to fund private, mostly religious schools. Public money belongs in public schools.

— Abusing Religious Freedom to Discriminate: Eight states introduced Religious Freedom Restoration Acts (RFRAs) this year, which are often misused by religious extremists to justify discrimination against LGBTQ people, women, religious minorities and the nonreligious. In states like West Virginia, Georgia, and Nebraska, AU worked with in-state allies to help legislators understand why these bills are so dangerous.

— School-Sponsored Prayer: Capitalizing on the Supreme Court’s terrible decision last year in the Kennedy v. Bremerton case that AU argued, religious extremists are distorting the ruling with bills that encourage teachers, coaches, and other school staff to abuse their position and power to impose religion on other people’s children. AU is working to make sure legislators know these bills are unnecessary because the Constitution already gives students the right to engage in voluntary, student-initiated prayer, and that the law preventing public schools — including teachers and coaches — from coercing students to participate in religious activities hasn’t changed.

These are just a few of the bills we’re fighting this year — there are hundreds more. Thanks to Nik’s amazing work we’re able to suppress the majority of them before they can be signed into law. And right now we'd like to hear from committed supporters like you — which of these 5 bills do you think is a top priority: [link removed]

We'll share our supporters' thoughts in an upcoming email.

Your support for AU helps our dedicated policy team stop these bills in their tracks and push back against religious extremists and their lawmaker allies.

Americans United will keep fighting — in state legislatures, in Congress, in court and in the public square — for freedom without favor and equality without exception.

Kind regards,

Andrew L. Seidel
VP of Strategic Communications

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