After coming off of a couple of years of strong pro-LGBT equality wins, the LGBT community is dazed and confused with loss after loss at the polls and in state legislatures everywhere. In the last two months, we’ve witnessed a wave of anti-LGBT bills filed by state legislators across the country aimed at enshrining LGBT discrimination under the guise of religious liberty. More than 100 bills have been filed in 29 state legislatures. As of April 6, anti-LGBT legislation proposed in Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming had been defeated or failed to meet key legislative deadlines, but more than 60 bills are still active in other states, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

What makes religious freedom laws difficult to fight against is that they are intentionally vague. Critics say that in recent years, politicians have championed RFRAs (religious freedom restoration acts) precisely for their ambiguity, not in spite of it. RFRAs allow legislators to affect issues from a safe distance. The law instructs judges to take religious rights more seriously, but doesn’t tell them how to rule. Anti-LGBT advocates can hide behind an RFRA, screaming at the top of their lungs that they are not discriminating, they’re just restoring religion’s place in society.

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