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| Ryan Anderson not happy with today's executive order |
Don't be fooled by the supposed show of support from anti-lgbtq and evangelical right groups regarding Trump's executive order. Some aren't happy that they didn't get the "BIG PRIZE" they wanted. And these folks aren't shy about voicing their disappointment.
From Yahoo News:
An executive order by President Trump meant to reward religious conservatives for their support of him in last year’s election fell short of what many had hoped for and drew widespread criticism on Thursday.
“The executive order on the whole looks to accomplish very little of substance, against the backdrop of a lot of show,” said John Inazu, a professor of law and religion at Washington University in St. Louis and author of “Confident Pluralism: Surviving and Thriving Through Deep Difference.”
Ryan T. Anderson, a Heritage Foundation scholar who is a leading advocate for religious conservatives, wrote that Trump’s order “does not address the major threats to religious liberty in the United States today.”
Apparently, Anderson seems to be miffed because the executive order totally dodged allowing people to discriminate on the grounds of "personal religious beliefs"
. . . what Trump issued today is rather weak. All it includes is general language about the importance of religious liberty, saying the executive branch “will honor and enforce” existing laws and instructing the Department of Justice to “issue guidance” on existing law; directives to the Department of the Treasury to be lenient in the enforcement of the Johnson Amendment; and directives to the secretaries of the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services (HHS) to “consider issuing amended regulations” to “address conscience-based objections” to the HHS contraception mandate. But the federal government should be honoring and enforcing our religious liberty laws anyway, legislation is required to actually address the Johnson Amendment—which isn’t the prime priority on religious liberty—and the Supreme Court has already unanimously instructed the federal government to resolve the case of Little Sisters of the Poor and other HHS mandate cases. By contrast, the February draft—a version of which was originally planned for today according to media reports—made good on many of the president’s promises to protect religious liberty from government penalties. That draft protected the religious liberty rights of all Americans in very tailored ways that addressed the problems of today.
Anderson failed to acknowledge that the February draft of Trump's executive order was so rigid in allowing discrimination on religious grounds that it caused a huge backlash.
According to Think Progress, other members of the right weren't happy with the executive order:
The Federalist’s David Harsanyi was also unimpressed, pining like Anderson for the “comprehensive relief” that would have been provided by the drafted order that previously leaked. “Trump’s executive order does little, and what little it does can be easily overturned,” he said. And over at the National Review, David French called the executive order “worse than useless.”
Think Progress also pointed out that LGBTQ groups aren't taking anything lightly and will be prepared should this issue come up again. As well we all should be because it will come up again.
Today was merely one round in a long fight.
