Today, HRC blasted the Trump-Pence Administration’s creation of a taxpayer-funded task force as part of their ongoing campaign to license discrimination against LGBTQ people in the public square. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the creation of the task force this morning at the U.S. Department of Justice alongside anti-LGBTQ extremists from Alliance Defending Freedom and the Colorado baker who refused to serve a gay couple in violation of the state’s nondiscrimination law. It will be led by Jesse Panuccio, who was an attorney in 2010 for supporters of Proposition 8, California’s same-sex marriage ban. 
 
 “This taxpayer funded task force is yet another example of the Trump-Pence White House and Jeff Sessions sanctioning discrimination against LGBTQ people,” said HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow. “Over the last 18 months, Donald Trump, Mike Pence and Jeff Sessions have engaged in a brazen campaign to erode and limit the rights of LGBTQ people in the name of religion. The Attorney General standing shoulder-to-shoulder this morning with anti-LGBTQ extremists tells you everything you need to know about what today’s announcement was really all about.” 
 
 Today’s announcement is the latest effort in an 18-month campaign by the Trump-Administration to license discrimination against LGBTQ people for so-called ‘religious’ reasons. Last year, Donald Trump issued an Executive Order directing Jeff Sessions to look across the federal government and assess ways in which the administration could license discrimination at government agencies. In January, the Department of Health and Human Services announced the creation of a so-called “Conscience” Division, empowering health care providers to discriminate against LGBTQ people. The Trump Administration has also proposed rule permitting health care providers--doctors, nurses, and even non medical support staff like receptionists--to deny even potentially life-saving care to LGBTQ people, women, and other vulnerable communities on the basis of the worker’s personal beliefs. 
 
 HRC has been chronicling the Trump-Pence Administration’s onslaught of attacks on the LGBTQ community here: http://www.hrc.org/timelines/trump. ||||| The U.S. attorney general has renewed his focus on Americans' religious rights. On Monday, Jeff Sessions announced a “Religious Liberty Task Force” aimed at making the country more hospitable to religious organizations. "You have to practice what you preach," he said at a press conference announcing the new group. 
 
 Sessions' task force will aim to ensure the Justice Department is upholding the executive order President Trump issued in May 2017 ordering the executive branch to protect religious freedoms. It will do so "in the cases they bring and defend, the arguments they make in court, the policies and regulations they adopt, and how we conduct our operations,” according to the attorney general. 
 
 This will include making sure Justice Department employees "know their duties to accommodate people of faith," Sessions said at the press conference, as well as continuing conversations with religious groups across America "to ensure that their rights are being protected." 
 
 “We’ve seen nuns ordered to buy contraceptives. We’ve seen U.S. senators ask judicial and executive branch nominees about dogma — even though the Constitution explicitly forbids a religious test for public office," Sessions said, also referencing the Colorado baker who refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. 
 
 The executive order that led to the creation of the task force states that "it shall be the policy of the executive branch to vigorously enforce Federal law’s robust protections for religious freedom," as well as "respect and protect the freedom of persons and organizations to engage in religious and political speech." 
 
 Sessions issued a new religious liberty guidance in October that acted as a predecessor to this task force that said the freedom to exercise your chosen religion "includes the right to act or abstain from action in accordance with one’s religious beliefs." 
 
 Sessions added on Monday that “religious Americans are no longer an afterthought" under the Trump administration. “In short, we have not only the freedom to worship — but the right to exercise our faith," he said. "The Constitution’s protections don’t end at the parish parking lot nor can our freedoms be confined to our basements." 
 
 The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) responded to the announcement on Twitter with a reminder for the Justice Department: 
 
 "Reminder: Religious freedom protects our right to our beliefs, not a right to harm others. The Department of Justice has no business licensing discrimination against LGBT people, women, and religious minorities." 
 
 The Justice Department also announced a new "Place to Worship Initiative" just last month, seeking to protect religious institutions' ability to build, expand, buy, or rent facilities. "By raising awareness about our legal rights, the Place to Worship Initiative will help us bring more civil rights cases, win more cases, and prevent discrimination from happening in the first place," Sessions said when announcing the initiative. 
 
 Protecting religious liberties have been a consistent platform for the Trump administration, including siding with the baker who refused to serve a same-sex couple and religious organizations that refused to provide their employees with insurance coverage for birth control. ||||| Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsOvernight Health Care: Thousands more migrant children may have been separated | Senate rejects bill to permanently ban federal funds for abortion | Women's March to lobby for 'Medicare for All' Acting AG Whitaker's wife defends him in lengthy email to journalist Watchdog: Thousands more migrant children separated from parents than previously known MORE announced Monday that the Department of Justice is creating a "religious liberty task force." 
 
 Sessions said the task force, co-chaired by Associate Attorney General Jesse Panuccio and the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Office of Legal Policy, Beth Williams, will help the department fully implement the religious liberty guidance it issued last year. 
 
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 The guidance was a byproduct of President Trump Donald John TrumpDACA recipient claims Trump is holding ‘immigrant youth hostage’ amid quest for wall Lady Gaga blasts Pence as ‘worst representation of what it means to be Christian’ We have a long history of disrespecting Native Americans and denying their humanity MORE’s executive order directing agencies to respect and protect religious liberty and political speech. 
 
 Sessions said on Monday that the task force will “ensure all Justice Department components are upholding that guidance in the cases they bring and defend, the arguments they make in court, the policies and regulations they adopt, and how we conduct our operations.” 
 
 The announcement came during the department’s religious liberty summit. 
 
 Sessions said the cultural climate in this country — and in the West more generally — has become less hospitable to people of faith in recent years, and as a result many Americans have felt their freedom to practice their faith has been under attack. 
 
 “We’ve seen nuns ordered to buy contraceptives. We’ve seen U.S. senators ask judicial and executive branch nominees about dogma—even though the Constitution explicitly forbids a religious test for public office. We’ve all seen the ordeal faced so bravely by Jack Phillips,” he said, referring to the Colorado baker who took his case to the Supreme Court after he was found to have violated the state’s anti-discrimination laws for refusing to make a cake for a same-sex wedding. 
 
 Sessions said the guidance he issued in October lays out 20 fundamental principles for the executive branch to follow, including the principles that free exercise means a right to act — or to abstain from action — and that government shouldn’t impugn people’s motives or beliefs. 
 
 “In short, we have not only the freedom to worship—but the right to exercise our faith. The Constitution’s protections don’t end at the parish parking lot nor can our freedoms be confined to our basements,” he said, according to his prepared remarks. 
 
 Sessions said the federal government under the Trump administration is not just reacting but is actively seeking to accommodate people of faith. 
 
 “Religious Americans are no longer an afterthought,” he said. ||||| CLOSE On Friday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issues government-wide legal guidance, urging sweeping protections for religious freedom that could impact a series of pending policy decisions involving health care, LGBT rights, and even disaster relief. USA TODAY 
 
 Attorney General Jeff Sessions makes a statement on DACA at the Justice Department on Sept. 5, 2017. (Photo: Susan Walsh, AP) 
 
 WASHINGTON — The Justice Department issued new guidance across the government Friday aimed at giving religious groups and individuals broad protections to express their beliefs when they come into conflict with government regulations, including when making hiring decisions. 
 
 Attorney General Jeff Sessions' directive fleshes out an executive order issued by President Trump earlier this year that had targeted in particular a provision of tax law prohibiting churches from direct involvement in political campaigns, a point that has chafed some evangelical activists. 
 
 But Sessions’ action, long anticipated since Trump’s announcement in May, also staked out religious protections for hiring decisions that could threaten those whose sexual orientation conflicts with employers' faith. 
 
 "Except in the narrowest of circumstances, no one should be forced to choose between living out his or her faith and complying with the law," the attorney general wrote. "To the greatest extent practicable and permitted by law, religious observance and practice should be reasonably accommodated in all government action, including employment, contracting and programming." 
 
 For example, the directive says the Internal Revenue Service may not enforce the so-called Johnson Amendment — which prohibits non-profits from intervening in a political campaign on behalf of a candidate — in cases involving a religious non-profit when the same activity would not be enforced against a secular organization. 
 
 The guidance also reiterates that religious non-profits may not be excluded from federal grant programs for activities unrelated to their worship, and explicitly states that private businesses are entitled to the same conscience protections as churches. 
 
 “Our freedom as citizens has always been inextricably linked with our religious freedom as a people," Sessions said. "It has protected both the freedom to worship and the freedom not to believe. Every American has a right to believe, worship, and exercise their faith. The protections for this right, enshrined in our Constitution and laws, serve to declare and protect this important part of our heritage." 
 
 The Justice Department guidance was issued as the Trump administration announced that it would expand the religious exemption for employers who object to providing insurance coverage for birth control because of their religious or moral beliefs. 
 
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 The Sessions guidance offered strong support for the move, saying that the Department of Health and Human Services should not "second guess the determination of a religious employer that providing contraceptive care to employees would make the employers compliant in wrongdoing." 
 
 Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council, lauded both actions Friday. 
 
 "After eight years of the federal government's relentless assault on the First Amendment, the Trump administration has taken concrete steps today that will once again erect a bulwark of protection around American's first freedom — religious freedom," Perkins said. 
 
 The Justice directive comes just days after a separate Sessions memo concluded that the federal civil rights law does not protect transgender people from discrimination in the workplace. The action reverses an Obama administration policy issued nearly three years ago. 
 
 According to Sessions' memo, the prohibition on sex discrimination "encompasses discrimination between men and women but does not encompass discrimination based on gender identity, per se, including transgender status." 
 
 The directive effectively rolls back 2014 guidance provided by then-Attorney General Eric Holder, which stated that the "most straightforward reading" of the civil rights law also guards transgender workers from discrimination. 
 
 Kris Hayashi, executive director of the Transgender Law Center, characterized Sessions' transgender directive and the religious freedom memo as "a license to discriminate." 
 
 “Just one day after announcing the government would refuse to uphold the law when it comes to protecting transgender workers, the attorney general today issued alarming guidance promoting state-sanctioned, taxpayer-funded discrimination against women, transgender people, and many other members of our communities," Hayashi said. 
 
 "Make no mistake: today’s guidance is devastating for transgender people. This license-to-discriminate memo invites illegal discrimination on a chilling new scale and attempts to open the door for carving certain communities, including transgender people, out of basic protections guaranteed by law." 
 
 University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias said civil rights groups "are right to be concerned." 
 
 "When you take into account the transgender directive and this (religious freedom) memo, there seems to be a pattern here" that could lead to possible discrimination, Tobias said. "I can see why LGBT employees and others could be concerned about employers in this context." 
 
 But Richard Garnett, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame who writes on First Amendment and religious freedom issues, said Sessions memo Friday represents "a significant commitment to a robust understanding of religious freedom." 
 
 "The attorney general stated clearly, in keeping with longstanding American tradition, that religious freedom is a fundamental human right and not merely a policy preference," Garnett said. 
 
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– Last year, President Trump signed an executive order on religious freedom, and now the Department of Justice is creating a "religious liberty task force" to implement the guidance that was issued as a result of that order. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the task force Monday during the DoJ's religious liberty summit, the Hill reports. Among other things, the guidance, issued in October, "staked out religious protections for hiring decisions that could threaten those whose sexual orientation conflicts with employers' faith," USA Today reported at the time, and the Human Rights Campaign responded to the task force news with concern that it will lead to anti-LGBTQ discrimination. Sessions, however, said that many Americans and others in the West feel their religious freedom is under attack. "We’ve seen nuns ordered to buy contraceptives," he said. "We’ve seen US senators ask judicial and executive branch nominees about dogma, even though the Constitution explicitly forbids a religious test for public office." He also cited the case of a baker who refused to make a same-sex wedding cake. Sessions said the Constitution's protections for free exercise of religion mean that "we have not only the freedom to worship—but the right to exercise our faith," by taking action or abstaining from action. The task force will ensure the government protects those freedoms and that the DoJ employees "know their duties to accommodate people of faith," per Bustle. The ACLU tweeted, "Reminder: Religious freedom protects our right to our beliefs, not a right to harm others."