This afternoon, good news came out of the Show-Me State for once, as the Missouri House Emerging Issues Committee sensibly killed SJR39’s chances of reaching the ballot box this year with a 6-6 deadlocked vote. A 6-6 tie means that the measure does NOT move on (for now).
Yezmin Villarreal at Advocate.com:
Missouri's house committee voted down a controversial anti-LGBT "religious freedom" bill on Wednesday with a tie 6-6 vote. That effectively kills the bill for this legislative session, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The bill, known as Senate Joint Resolution 39, would have gone on the ballot in November, asking Missouri voters to amend the state constitution to protect “certain religious organizations and individuals from being penalized by the state because of their sincere religious beliefs or practices concerning marriage between two persons of the same sex,” according to the measure’s text. Essentially, the resolution asked voters to approve a broad "right to discriminate" against married same-sex couples and other people who somehow offend an individual's religious sensibilities.
David Badash at The New Civil Rights Movement:
Highly Controversial Bill to 'Protect' People of Faith From Interacting With Same-Sex Couples and LGBT People Is Dead – for Now
A Missouri bill designed to offer protection to Christians and other people of faith from interacting, serving, or doing business with same-sex couples has just died in committee. SJR 39 was so contentious Senate Democrats broke a filibuster record, trying to stop the bill from passage for 39 hours straight.
Sarah Fenske at Riverfront Times:
According to PROMO Missouri, Hansen was joined in opposition by Rep. Jeremy LaFaver, Rep. Mike Colona, Rep. Sharon Pace, Rep. Caleb Rowden and Rep. Anne Zerr. Zerr, of St. Charles, and Rowden, of Columbia, are also Republicans, and both currently running for the Missouri Senate.
The tie vote means the constitutional amendment will not go to a full vote of the House of the Representatives, barring another attempt on the part of its sponsors. (It's already passed the Missouri Senate, though getting it through that chamber required extraordinary measures to end an epic Democrat-led filibuster.)
A “religious freedom” amendment to Missouri’s constitution was defeated Wednesday in a House committee, dealing a likely deadly blow to one of the most controversial bills of the 2016 legislative session.
After a half hour of emotional testimony that left many in the room in tears, the House Emerging Issues Committee deadlocked 6-6 onSenate Joint Resolution 39, or SJR39. A tie vote means the bill is defeated.
[...]While the bill is on life support, it’s not dead yet. Fifty-five members of the Missouri House could sign on to a discharge petition that would bypass the committee process and bring the bill up for a vote before the full House.
Proponents say they are mulling this option.
Tim Peacock at Peacock Panache:
Thanks to a 6-6 vote in the Missouri House Emerging Issues Committee, SJR39 will not be put to a vote this fall. The narrowly tailored state constitutional amendment would have allowed targeted discrimination against same-sex couples in places of public accommodation across Missouri by creating a new ‘protected’ class of persons: those who may use religious beliefs to refuse service to same-sex persons in places of public accommodation so long as the refusal is based in sincerely-held religious belief.
However, there could still be a chance that SJR39 could be resurrected, if 55+ House Reps sign a petition to bypass committee and bring it to the full House:
In any case, this is a victory for fairness and decency in Missouri.
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