“This is putting the world on notice: You better take these claims seriously,” said Robin Fretwell Wilson, a law professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “This is a signal to the rest of these agencies to rethink the protections they have put in place on sexual orientation and gender identity.”

 

“Except in the narrowest circumstances, no one should be forced to choose between living out his or her faith and complying with the law,” Sessions wrote. “To the greatest extent practicable and permitted by law, religious observance and practice should be reasonably accommodated in all government activity.”

 

This will mean that a person can deny service to a gay person. Don't want to issue a same-sex license even if that's your job? The government will protect your right not to! Don't want to help a queer couple adopt? You don't have to! Don't want a gay person staying in your AirBNB rental flat? Just say it offends your faith and you're free to do what you want.

 

Also at risk with the new guidelines is the Johnson Amendment, which currently bars churches and tax-exempt groups from endorsing political candidates. Sessions' decree could open the door to all of these tax-exempt groups -- like mega-rich Evangelical churches -- from playing a more aggressive role in politics than they already do.

 

“Today the Trump-Pence administration launched an all-out assault on LGBTQ people, women, and other minority communities by unleashing a sweeping license to discriminate,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “This blatant attempt to further Donald Trump’s cynical and hateful agenda will enable systematic, government-wide discrimination that will have a devastating impact on LGBTQ people and their families. Donald Trump and Mike Pence have proven they will stop at nothing to target the LGBTQ community and drag our nation backwards. We will fight them every step of the way.”