Texas Marriage and Religious Rights Ensured Act (HB 3602)

HB 3602 would permit a “conscientious objector” to freely act or refuse to act in accordance with a sincerely held religious belief without the threat of a person or government agency taking any adverse action against them.

The bill defines “conscientious objector” to mean a person with a sincerely held religious belief that:

• marriage is or should be recognized as only the union of one man and one woman;
• sexual relations should be exclusively reserved to the marriage of only one man and one woman; or
• gender or gender identity is or should be determined by the predominant chromosomal sex.

This law would not apply to an action by a government agency that burdens a conscientious objector’s right to act or fail to act if the government agency action is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest and is the least restrictive means of furthering that interest; or actions taken solely for purposes of harassment.

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