- Mat Staver, who'sfounder of Liberty Counsel

calls the Equality Act a dangerous threat

to religious freedom,he's absolutely right.

He's joining us now from Florida.

Mat, tell us about this thing.

What are the consequences

of this iniquitous piece of legislation?

- Well, the best way toconceptualize this, Pat,

is that what you cannotdo legally respecting race

you will not be able to do legally

respecting anything related to LGBT,

and this includes churchesand religious organizations.

So churches, for example, now are not able

to both morally, biblically,and certainly legally

have segregated restrooms,shower rooms, locker rooms,

et cetera, and so under this bill

what you cannot do regarding race,

that will be the same regarding LGBT.

So you will not be able to prevent men

from using women's private facilities

and this, Pat, includes churches.

It not only elevates LGBTto the same protected level

as race, but it expands excessively

the current federal laws, many of them.

It repeals the ReligiousFreedom Restoration Act

that was passed overwhelmingly in 1993,

signed into law by BillClinton, so you can't use

religious free exerciseas a claim or a defense,

and it makes abortion afederally-protected civil right

and would require the fundingof abortion through Medicaid,

Medicare, and other sources as well.

So this is exceptionally broad.

It is clearly as thepresident, as the White House

has stated in that statement,filled with many poison pills.

It is by far the biggestthreat to religious freedom

and freedom in general andthe sanctity of human life

that I've ever seen come out of Congress.

- Well you know, the Constitution,

we talk about the First Amendment,

but it says Congress,Congress shall pass no law

respecting the establishment of religion.

They made a big deal,but said, or prohibiting

the free exercise thereof.

This law would completely nullify

that part of theConstitution, is that right?

- Exactly, it would, and so for churches

and for Christianuniversities and colleges,

say for example like Regent and others,

if you did not comply with these mandates,

if you refused to allow a boy, a man

to sleep in a hotel room inthe same room with a girl

when they're on anovernight athletic event

or something else, whenthey're on an overnight stay,

that would be like race discrimination,

and this would be discriminationon the base of LGBT.

That would result inloss of tax exemption.

And it could also affectaccreditation of colleges

and universities, so thisis exceptionally broad.

It covers every area of our lives,

churches, non-profits, for-profits,online home businesses,

it covers everything, it'san excessive overreach.

It is filled with two ofthe Democratic priorities

in the House, LGBT and abortionand guts religious freedom.

- Mat, you know, thisLGBT, it wasn't long ago

that somebody was having a sex change

and it was a relatively rare thing.

Suddenly the people whoare having sex changes

have got a protected status.

LG is lesbian, bisexual,what does all that? (laughs)

What do those initials all stand for?

- You know, it's really lesbian,gay, bisexual, transgender,

and then they add many otherletters of the alphabet.

Q for questioning, youdon't know what you are.

And under the transgenderit's not just someone

who's gender confused, aman who wants to be a woman

or vice versa, it's someonealso who wants to be neither.

Believe it or not, thereare people who are claiming

that they're neither male nor female

and they prefer and theydemand and under this law

they will be required to be addressed

by the pronoun they, that'sright, they plural pronoun they.

This is exceptionally broad.

You're not gonna be able

to get away from this if it's passed.

It will certainly pass in the House.

The real battle will beto stop it in the Senate.

There's already 45 or socosponsors in the Senate.

All the Democrats are lining up there

including at least one Republican,

but I think that's thebattle where we can stop it.

We don't need to let itget to the president's desk

for a veto, it needs tobe stopped in the Senate

because it is literally culturechanging in so many aspects.

- Mat, where did it come from?

I've been doing thesethings for years and years,

but it looks like thelast five or 10 years

this has suddenly gainedincredible momentum.

What's the origin of it?

Who's sponsoring all these things?

- You know, it makes nosense, but what we see

is an exponential, rapidgrowth of this LGBT issue.

And the LGBT issue is intolerant,

and the target is religious freedom.

Churches, people of faithbecause that's the last bastion

that holds to Judeo-Christian values,

and that's why this literallyguts religious freedom.

Chuck Schumer was a cosponsor

of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act

and this law for the veryfirst time specifically says

you cannot use the ReligiousFreedom Restoration Act

as a claim or defense,

so it literally guts religious freedom.

The ultimate target is religiousfreedom, people of faith.

This would also reversethe ability of churches,

synagogues, and mosquesto make hiring decisions

based upon their religion,so in other words,

a synagogue preferring Jews over Muslims

would be in violation.

A church preferringChristians over atheists

would be in violation of this law.

- Can you get Jewish support for this,

for the work you're doing?

- I think we can get Jewish support

I think we can get a broad-based support

because once you reallystart to look at this law

it's really right there on the surface.

It literally removes the law's protection

that goes all the way backto 1964 that churches,

houses of worship can makehiring, employment decisions

based upon their faith.

It makes sense thatCatholics should be able

to prefer Catholics in their church.

Protestants should be ableto prefer Protestants.

Jews, Jews, Muslims,Muslims, but this literally

repeals that ability across the board.

So I think the more peoplebecome aware of this bill,

maybe not with some of theradicalism that's happening

in the Congress,particularly in the House,

but the grassroots,religious faith leaders

and faith communities, oncethey realize the impact

of this bill, it's far beyondjust LGBT, as bad as that is,

as dangerous as that is tofreedom, it is a broad base

repeal of religiousfreedom across the board.

- Well Mat, thank you for being,

and thank you for the work you're doing.

And I wanted to ask our audience now,

I think you should call yoursenator or your congressman,

your representative, the telephone number

for the Capitol HillSwitchboard is 202-224-3121

and you can call in and sayI object to this bill I want

you to vote against it,and the thing is coming up

in the House apparently

and is gonna be pushed in the Senate.

Let me give you that number,there it is, 202-224-3121.