Louie Gohmert: “For years we have been hearing what we are hearing today: Look, we just want the same rights everybody else has. But we…”

“For years we have been hearing what we are hearing today: Look, we just want the same rights everybody else has. But we also heard for years: We just want to live and let live. I have got news for all of my friends across the aisle that don't know. There is a right to the marriage you are claiming you need this bill for that the Supreme Court has already said you have. It is there. So what this bill, the so-called Equality Act, is really about, it is not about giving rights. This is about taking away rights. You have the rights. But this is saying that part of the First Amendment, ``Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,'' that has to go. {time} 1415 And just like my friend read from page 25, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, that has got to go. You can no longer--after this bill, you can no longer use that as a defense when we sue your church, we sue your preacher. Male or female, it doesn't matter. We are coming after you. If we sue a Rabbi, you can't hide behind the First Amendment or this Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It won't help you because we are saying you don't have those rights the Constitution gave you. That is all RFRA was to begin with. It was just codifying what was in the Constitution. I thought so much about my dear friend, the late Bishop Harry Jackson. He and I had stood inside this Capitol together for years trying to protect Christian rights.…”