Thanks to a bunch of anti-LGBT Republicans who just won’t quit, a House Committee is considering the “First Amendment Defense Act” (FADA), a bill that would give special protections to people with anti-LGBT beliefs. 

It’s not just a generic religious freedom bill; it specifically states that people who are anti-marriage equality (or anti-premarital sex, for that matter) cannot be punished if they discriminate because of that belief. 

By its own explicit terms, FADA grants special rights to individuals with a “religious belief or moral conviction that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, or that sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage.” In that sense, it closely resembles a Mississippi law that a federal judge halted earlier this month, in part because it extends special treatment to individuals with anti-LGBT religious beliefs.

Under, the core provision of FADA “the Federal Government shall not take any discriminatory action against a person, wholly or partially on the basis that such person believes or acts in accordance with” a religious objection to marriage equality or a faith-based belief that sexual relations must be reserved to a marriage between people of the opposite sex. Subsequent provisions define the term “discriminatory action” to include a broad range of sanctions against religious objectors who themselves engage in discrimination. The government cannot deny tax subsidies to religious objectors who discriminate against LGBT people, or deny them a grant or benefit, or, under a catch-all provision, “otherwise discriminate against such person.”

Lots of words there, but basically, this is state-sanctioned and state-funded discrimination targeting LGBT people, and it could undo tons and tons of progress we’ve made under the Obama administration. Good lord, Congressional Republicans, can’t you give it a rest?