JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Missouri business leaders encouraged Rep. Elijah Haahr, R-Springfield, to amend the controversial SJR 39, removing provisions designed to protect businesses and individuals from violating their religious beliefs in regards to same-sex marriage while leaving the provision protecting religious institutions intact.
Haahr chairs the Emerging Issues Committee, which will hear the resolution, but no hearing date has been set yet.
“While we understand the desire to protect clergy and religious institutions from having to perform ceremonies counter to their beliefs, expanding protections to individual and private businesses that voluntarily enter the stream of public commerce sends the message to the rest of the country that Missouri condones discrimination,” the letter says. “We urge you to amend SJR 39 to remove these provisions.”
Seventeen businesses signed the letter, including Ameren, Commerce Bank, The Dow Chemical Company, Monsanto and Edward Jones, all of which have a major presence in the state.
The Missouri, St. Louis and Kansas City Chambers of Commerce had already come out against the legislation, arguing it would hurt business in Missouri.
Business has already impacted similar legislation in other states. Governors in Indiana, Georgia and Virginia have vetoed or repealed similar acts in the last year due to concerns raised by local businesses.
In North Carolina, where the governor signed a law last month that prevents municipalities in the state from passing anti-discrimination laws, PayPal announced that they would not go through with multi-million dollar plans to expand in the state because of the law.
“We are concerned that some provisions of Senate Joint Resolution 39 are directly counter to our Missouri values and will have significant negative economic effects on our state,” the letter continued. “Estimates of economic losses due to travel boycotts and canceled business expansions in Indiana are as high as $60 million and the negative effects are still being felt a year later.”
SJR 39 passed the Senate last month after a 39-hour filibuster by Senate Democrats. Since then the business and pro-LGBT lobbies have put pressure on the House to reject the resolution.
