Sen. Mike Padden, a sponsor of the Religious Freedom Protection Act, said he’s supporting the measure because it would extend the state’s anti-discrimination laws in a way that should protect practitioners of any religion from discrimination.

“State government has no business forcing someone to violate his or her deeply-held religious beliefs, yet our new attorney general recently went out of his way to bring a lawsuit against a florist in the Tri-Cities simply because she has chosen not to compromise her Christian beliefs by providing services at a same-sex marriage ceremony,” said Padden, R-Spokane Valley, about Senate Bill 5927, introduced Thursday.

“Who will Mr. Ferguson go after next in his apparent zeal to put people into what amounts to a modern-day stockade?”

Padden recalled how, when the bill that eventually became Washington’s same-sex marriage law came before the Senate for a vote in February 2012, he and others had raised concerns that the measure failed to adequately respect the religious beliefs of people who  might be approached about providing services, facilities, goods and more for same-sex weddings.

“The owner of Arlene’s Flowers, who is being targeted by Attorney General Ferguson, could have had her religious beliefs protected by a straightforward amendment offered by one of my colleagues; the supporters said no,” said Padden.

No complaint against the Tri-Cities florist was filed with the state Human Rights Commission, Padden noted.

“It seems like a real stretch for the attorney general to call this a consumer-protection case, especially if the would-be consumers – the gay couple – didn’t complain to his office about it,” said Padden.

“As I understand it, from reading the lawsuit, the florist did not say she wouldn’t provide floral services because the customers are gay – she was turning them down because she’s a Christian,” Padden continued. “Since when should it be up to state government to dictate which religious convictions are agreeable and which are not?”