June 30, 2023
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Kaylee Wong, kwong@api-gbv.org
API-GBV is alarmed by the Supreme Court’s decision today in 303 Creative v. Elenis, which held that Colorado’s anti-discrimination law violates the First Amendment by forcing a private website designer to create designs with which the designer disagrees. This ruling creates a dangerous exception to the state public accommodation laws, even if it affects members of a protected class.
In her dissent, Justice Sotomayor (joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson) stated that, “[t]oday, the Court, for the first time in its history, grants a business open to the public a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class.”
“This most recent decision, on top of all the decisions that have been handed down by the Supreme Court this week, support the continued discrimination against the most vulnerable and marginalized in our communities. At API-GBV we steadfastly state our support for LGBTQ+ community and fight alongside our partners to unequivocally uphold the freedoms of a population that has continuously been advocating for their own equality,” Monica Khant, Executive Director of API-GBV
This decision will further erode the rights of LGBTQ+ community members, by allowing private entities to discriminate by ignoring public accommodations laws, preventing equal access to services and based on religious and/or moral biases. For LGBTQ+ survivors, the decision narrows public accommodation options available to them, leaving them more vulnerable to gender-based violence.
API-GBV released a Fact Sheet demonstrating the barriers that AAPI LGBTQ+ individuals face in obtaining services and public accommodations. Its findings capture the range of experiences, track current trends and prevalence rates regarding gender-based violence, and bring attention to areas of need for AAPI LGBTQ+ survivors and communities in the U.S. Read the fact sheet here: https://www.api-gbv.org/resources/aapi-lgbtq-experiences-of-gbv/
###
About Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence
The Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence (API-GBV) is a national resource center on domestic violence, sexual violence, trafficking, and other forms of gender-based violence in Asian/Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities. API-GBV envisions a world free of gender-based violence for communities with equal opportunities for all to thrive. For more information about API-GBV, visit www.api-gbv.org.