Urge Your State Representative to Oppose House Bill 1063

April 11, 2005
Dear Action Alert Member,

Your call is needed! Please contact your representative in the Illinois House and urge him/her to oppose House Bill 1063 when it is called for a vote as early as tomorrow.

Members of the Illinois General Assembly are poised to vote on House Bill 1063 as early as tomorrow. House Bill 1063 allows discrimination in hiring on any basis for no reason allowed in the Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA) or the Free Exercise Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

House Bill 1063 allows any secular nonprofit, such as a social service agency or hospital, that works in conjunction with a religious organization, to discriminate in hiring on the basis or race, disability, gender, national origin, ancestry, military status, marital status or sexual orientation.

The Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA) bans such discrimination but accommodates religious institutions by allowing them to discriminate in hiring on the basis of religion for all positions, whether the minister or secretary. Thus a church may require all staff to be members of the church. Moreover, the Free Exercise Clause of the U.S. Constitution allows discrimination on any basis in hiring -including race, gender, and sexual orientation -as to work that is important to the spiritual and pastoral mission of the church.

Urge Opposition to Race and Disability Based Discrimination in Hiring -

Oppose House Bill 1063!

Taking us back to the days of "whites only" hiring, House Bill 1063 allows for race and disability discrimination in hiring at secular nonprofits such as social service agencies and hospitals that work in conjunction with religious institutions, impacting thousands of employees.

The IHRA serves important governmental interests by protecting against discrimination. House Bill 1063 goes far beyond the two carve outs to the IHRA ban on discrimination. For the first time -religious institutions could discriminate for any reason, including race or disability in selecting employees whose work has nothing to do with the church's spiritual and pastoral mission, such as custodial or administrative staff.

If you want to send a letter by fax to your state representative on House Bill 1063, a sample letter appears below.

Sample letter in opposition to HB 1063

Dear Representative:

I am appalled to think that in 2005 a bill awaiting a vote in the Illinois House allows for discrimination in hiring on the basis of race, disability, gender, or any of the categories currently protected under the Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA). While I understand and support that such broad based discrimination is allowed solely by religious institutions in hiring of persons who are key to the church's mission, House Bill 1063 would allow broad based discrimination by secular institutions, such as social service agencies or hospitals, who employ thousands of Illinois citizens and who are appropriately prohibited from such discrimination.

I also disapprove of the way this legislation allows such broad based discrimination in hiring to be applied to administrative and custodial staff of churches, synagogues or mosques. Again, I support the IHRA that allows churches to require every member of their staff to be of the same faith and can therefore fire or refuse to hire someone who is not of that church affiliation, but House Bill 1063 goes much further. It allows churches to refuse to hire or fire someone in a non-religious position such as a janitor or secretary, on grounds of race or disability -and these jobs have nothing to do with spreading church doctrine. This type of discrimination is not a legitimate "free exercise of religion."

I support people of faith and the rights of religious institutions under the IHRA and the U.S. Constitution but I cannot support legislation that takes our state backward to the days when discrimination in hiring on the basis of race, gender, disability, national origin or sexual orientation was allowed. I urge you to oppose House Bill 1063 and look forward to hearing from you on this critical legislation.

Sincerely,