House panel rejects Live and Let Live Act (anti-LGBT bill)

DENVER — A bill many feared would take Colorado back to its 1992 reputation as the “hate state” failed in a state House of Representatives committee Tuesday night on a party-line vote.

House Bill 1206 would have allowed those with “sincerely-held religious beliefs” to discriminate against LGBTQ individuals, according to witnesses who testified on the measure.

The House Judiciary Committee’s five-hour hearing on the bill, dubbed the “Live and Let Live Act,” featured testimony from the couple at the center of the Masterpiece Cakeshop case currently in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. It ended with a 7-4 vote against the measure.

The bill was sponsored by Republican state Rep. Stephen Humphrey of Severance, who has tried for the last four years to pass similar measures related to the free exercise of religion.

Read more: https://coloradopolitics.com/house-committee-rejects-hb1206/