Dear Next President,

I have a question for you, Do you value peoples beliefs more than people themselves? Do you think it is okay for a religious freedom law to allow business owners to refuse service to LGBT individuals? The separation of church and state is nonexistent in todays society. House Bill 348 states that anyone can act or refuse to act on religious grounds. This means if a gay man walked into a restaurant the business owner has legal right to refuse him service simply because of his sexual orientation. The short title of the article is "The North Carolina Religious Freedom Restoration Act" The law also states that you must use the restroom that correlates with the gender on your birth certificate. Any transgender individual who has already completed their transition is now required to use the restroom they were born into. Someone who was born a man but later transitioned to a woman is now legally required to use the men's restroom. The government claims this is to keep pedophiles out of female restrooms but somebody who was born a woman but now has all the physical features of man is now going to be forced to use the women's restroom. This law is supposed to allow freedom of religion, not the freedom to discriminate.

The government also has no place in women's health and reproductive rights. The rights of a woman to her own body should be hers and hers only. This is another place that the separation of church and state is so prevalent, or more notably the lack thereof. Many politicians have been fighting to make all abortions illegal and defund planned parenthood, these politicians have a large following and a lot of support because so many religious people agree with them and want their voices heard. What many don't realize is how truly beneficial planned parenthood truly is to women's health and how many more services they offer besides abortion services. They offer cancer screenings, birth control, std testing, and so much more. To take this away from women simply because your religious beliefs conflict with it isn't right. To take this away from women simply because your religious beliefs don't agree with it is absolutely wrong. A woman is the only one who has a right to her body. The separation of church and state has been getting smaller and smaller and it's time for a change. The worst way you can express your religious freedom is to use it to oppress others. I'm requesting a change in the current separation between church and state as it is much smaller than it should be.

Sincerely,

-Brendan Clarkson