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NC Lawmaker Likens Anti-LGBTQ "Religious Exemption" to Saving Jews During Holocaust

Seriously?!

The "architect" of North Carolina's most infamously anti-LGBTQ legislation just tried to liken his efforts to chip away at the rights of queer people to the work of Oskar Schindler, a German man who saved Jewish people during the Holocaust.

As The Huffington Post reports, state Sen. Dan Bishop, a Republican, made the problematic comment in an email exchange from 2017. Those emails were eventually obtained—and published online—by Real Facts NC.

UNITED STATES - MAY 16 - Protestors gather across the street from the North Carolina state legislative building as they voice their concerns over House Bill 2, in Raleigh, N.C., Monday, May 16, 2016. House Bill 2, also known as the Bathroom Bill, which requires transgender people to use the public restroom matching the sex on their birth certificate, has received the attention of national media and the White House. (Photo By Al Drago/CQ Roll Call)

LGBTQ activists in North Carolina gather in protest of HB 2 in 2016.

Discussing how to minimize the partial repeal of the state's now-infamous House Bill 2 "bathroom bill," Bishop proposed a religious exemption, or "conscience clause," for anti-LGBTQ business owners or practitioners whose work is an "act of expressive creativity." (Think Jack Phillips of the similarly infamous Masterpiece Cakeshop Supreme Court case from Colorado.)

But a legal counsel from the Alliance Defending Freedom—a notoriously anti-queer legal group designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center—wanted to push the scope of that exemption further.

"Whom are we attempting to protect here?" she wrote. "Just creative professionals?"

"As Oscar [sic] Schindler said, as many as we can," Bishop responded, comparing the blatantly discriminatory bathroom bill to Schindler's valiant efforts to hire and thereby protect as many Jews as he could in Nazi Germany.

Jeff Siner/Charlotte Observer/TNS via Getty Images

Democrat Dan McCready makes his way through the crowd at a rally for supporters on February 22, 2019, in Waxhaw, N.C. (Jeff Siner/Charlotte Observer/TNS via Getty Images)

Democrat Dan McCready, who's facing off against Bishop for a seat in the United States House of Representatives.

Responding to a Huffington Post request for comment, Bishop's campaign rep pointed out that the senator went on to justify his original stance: that the exemption should apply to creative professionals. But the controversial comment certainly doesn't bode well for Bishop, who's currently running against Democrat Dan McCready in an upcoming special election for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Oh, did we mention Bishop is a Trump-endorsed pick for the House? Because that's a thing, too.

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