The committee voted 14-6 to advance the bill to the House floor. Republican Reps. Kim Banta, R-Ft. Mitchell, and Stephanie Dietz, R-Edgewood, joined Democrats in voting against the bill. It now heads to the House for floor votes.

Rep. Nima Kulkarni, D-Louisville, said the reality is, “we live in a very litigious society, and we live in a society where discrimination exists. The legislation we’re voting on is over-broad and unnecessary” and would “weaken protections we have for some of our most vulnerable.”

Freedom to exercise religion, Kulkarni said, “does not mean the freedom to discriminate.”

But Rawlings insisted his bill is “not about discrimination. It’s about protection.”

But protection of whom, opponents asked.

Rep. Keturah Herron, D-Louisville, who voted against the bill, said lawmakers who support it “need to be careful” not to open the door in statute that tells a person, “based on your religious belief, you can discriminate. Basically that’s what this bill says.”

Rawlings implied this was a mischaracterization of that bill, but didn’t deny that could be a possible outcome.

“My intention was to protect people of faith to be able to practice their religious beliefs,” he told Herron. “I’m sorry you feel that way about it.”

Chris Hartman of the Fairness Campaign, who spoke in opposition to the bill, said freedom of religion is already a strongly protected constitutional right at the state and federal level.

“What is it that’s not currently working with this act? What makes it so necessary to expand this?” he asked, calling it, “nothing but a jackpot justice law for the Alliance Defending Freedom.”

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