Just in time for Halloween, state governor Phil Bryant is trying to bring House Bill 1523 back from the dead.

For those unaware, House Bill 1523 (or HB1523) is a so-called “religious freedoms” bill that had three main points: marriage is only between a man and a woman, sex should only take place in such a marriage and a person’s gender is determined at birth and cannot be altered. The bill was ruled unconstitutional for two fairly obvious reasons. As Judge Carlton Reeves (who struck down the bill) put it, the bill “violates both the guarantee of religious neutrality and the promise of equal protection of the laws.”

The fact that Governor Bryant is even trying to bring this bill back is outrageous. Not only was the bill ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge, but many citizens of Mississippi have no desire for the bill at all. An article about Bryant’s attempt to appeal Reeves’ ruling in the Sun Herald (a coastal Mississippi newspaper) starts with the words “Don’t do it.” Mississippi’s Attorney General Jim Hood even refused to appeal the ruling. While the need to argue your own beliefs is understandable, arguing against a federal ruling without full support from your home state is just foolish.

Many arguments against the bill from when it first came out still hold true. Various businesses have threatened to leave Mississippi because of the bill; on top of that, it gives Mississippi an even worse image. The law is also grossly discriminatory against women and the LGBTQ+ community to the point where it could drive people away from our state.

This bill promotes the same anti-LGBT rhetoric that harms so many in our country, and it violates the Constitution in its clear preferential treatment of a certain set of religious beliefs. This bill is a brutish, foolish, poorly reactionary piece of work, and it is my sincere hope that Governor Bryant will reconsider his current stance and let HB1523 die.