Missouri AG Bailey’s religion-based attacks hurt every American’s basic freedoms | Opinion
Recently, while in Washington, D.C., I had lunch with a dreamingly handsome man. After we finished our meal, he walked me outside to wait for the Uber that would take me to a conference that I was in town for. Once my car arrived, as we said our goodbyes, he leaned in to kiss me, but I hesitated and pushed him back just for a second — before I reminded myself that, at that moment, I wasn’t back home in Missouri.
As a state, Missouri is in no way unique for the violence enacted here towards the LGBTQ community. In fact, according to recently released FBI data on crime in 2023, there was an increase in hate crimes related to sexual orientation and gender identity bias across the U.S., up 8.6% from the previous year. Without pointing to a direct relation, it’s worth mentioning that this same year saw a then-record-breaking number of anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in state legislatures — a whopping 500-plus.
People are justifiably concerned about Project 2025 — the 922-page Christian nationalist manifesto authored by Donald Trump’s allies to remove power and control from the people and increase the authority of the president. In the process, Project 2025 would roll back many of our rights and freedoms, including LGBTQ rights. However, here in Missouri, the looming threat of Project 2025 has already come to fruition, where one politician, Attorney General Andrew Bailey, has adapted the playbook for his own policy goals.
Part of Project 2025 includes a plan to reclassify career civil servants as political appointees, making it easier to fire anyone in the federal government and replace them with Trump loyalists. This is a similar action already taken by Bailey, who just 20 days after being appointed by Gov. Mike Parson, called for the resignation of Columbia public school officials over an event that included drag performers.
A major target of Project 2025 is abortion rights, including surveillance of individuals’ reproductive health care. The plan would force states to report miscarriages and “exactly how many abortions take place within its borders,” including the “reason” for every abortion. Already in Missouri, in a similar effort to restrict and interject control over personal medical decisions, Bailey has filed suit against multiple providers of gender-affirming care across the state, demanding unredacted access to patient health records.
The danger of a second Trump presidency is no secret. It has been laid out step by step, in plain text. While it’s unlikely that Bailey was given a copy of Project 2025 at the start of his tenure as Missouri AG, his actions perfectly align with the plan’s intentions because people like Bailey and the authors of Project 2025 have a faulty perception of freedom. To them, freedom is not everyone’s birthright, but rather something granted by government, and only to those who act within politicians’ narrow set of religious beliefs.
This is a fundamental misunderstanding of religious freedom. Everyone is entitled to their sincerely held religious beliefs, or a lack thereof. In fact, that’s a foundational American principle. Thomas Jefferson called for “a wall of separation between church and state” because our nation’s founders realized that there could not be freedom of religion for all people and religions if the government abides by a single religion — which is why religious freedom is a shield that protects us all.
When those in any position of power and influence use their religious beliefs as an excuse to degrade and demonize anyone outside their narrow realm of beliefs, it not only normalizes such rhetoric, but also emboldens their followers to act out real-world violence. In March of this year, Bailey launched a formal investigation into a student fight at a suburban St. Louis school, blaming it on diversity and inclusion practices. Immediately afterward, the school received verbal abuse and at least one bomb threat from callers across the nation.
Anytime Andrew Bailey refuses to grant the same freedoms to everyone, he is using his religious freedom as a sword, and inviting his followers to willfully neglect and disrespect everyone else’s freedoms.