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Basic Rights Oregon spent much of the week bracing for an executive order by President Donald Trump granting organizations broad authority to discriminate against LGBTQ people by citing religious belief.
The advocacy group is breathing a sigh of relief—but only a small one—after reports on Friday that Trump had decided against issuing that order.
National media outlets reported on Friday that Trump opted not to move forward with an executive order on "religious freedom," which in the eyes of civil-rights groups has become a euphemism for discrimination.
Perhaps the most notorious example of such discrimination occurred in Oregon in 2014, when Gresham bakery Sweet Cakes by Melissa refused to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple. That case resulted in a $135,000 fine by the state Labor Bureau when owner Aaron Klein refused to serve the couple, then posted their home address online. That ruling became a rallying point for the religious right.
Basic Rights Oregon had been preparing for the Trump administration to debut an executive order carving out protections for Christian to discriminate based on sexual orientation.
"We have been expecting an executive order all week based on information from our national partners," says Amy Herzfeld-Copple, the co-executive director of Basic Rights Oregon.
Herzfeld-Copple says she doesn't think that the danger of LGBT rights being curtailed has passed, because many of the president's supporters remain anxious for him to roll back protections put in place by the Obama administration. (Outlets such as Politico credited Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner with over-ruling Trump supporters who wanted to erase LGBTQ gains.)
"I don't feel any confidence in the Trump Adminstration that they are somehow now feeling benevolent to the LGBT community," Herzfeld-Copple says. "We think there will continue to a number of assaults on civil rights coming out of the White House."
She says gains for transgender people are at particular risk because they are newer than protections for gay and lesbian people.
"LGBT Muslims, immigrants and folks of color are feeling very targeted," Herzfeld-Copple says. "His executive orders so far have not demonstrated much empathy for the larger human family."
