Every week the editorial board reflects on a current issue in Our View. The position taken does not reflect the opinions of everyone on the Hilltop Views staff.

State Sen. Donna Campbell issued a new proposal last Monday that would allow Texas employers to fire employees based on their sexuality, according to Think Progress.

The idea behind the proposal is that employers should be allowed to practice their religious liberties meaning that, if their religion opposes homosexuality, they may feel morally obligated to let LGBT employees go. Moreover, companies can refuse to serve LGBT clients.

Allowing this proposal to be anything more than talk would be regressive. Some may liken it to the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policies of the Armed Forces. In 1993, a policy went into effect which provided that homosexual conduct was a bar to service in the Armed Forces, according to the U.S. Army website.

During this time period, homosexuals were forced to live without acknowledging a key piece of their identities if they wanted to serve their country. Homosexuality wasn’t listed as a mental illness in the DSM in 1986, according to the American Psychological Association, but the U.S. government allowed discrimination to continue.

Essentially, homosexuals were stripped of being able to perform their civic duty. Forcing them to live in constant fear of being fired leads to the same oppression as the DADT policies our country repealed in 2011. Now, the fight isn’t for duty, but for life.

Campbell’s fight will cause people to lose their livelihood because of who they love. LGBT members fight for the safety workplaces once afforded them. Others fight for their rights to simply buy goods and services as an equal member of society.

This new proposal is not only morally wrong, but ethically wrong as well. If taken further, it will limit people’s ability in the workplace and abolish their ability to purchase goods and services. This sounds like a regression much farther than 1993.

Campbell might as well call her proposal “The New Jim Crow Laws.” Her ideas do not directly call out homosexuals as inferior, but she seems a fan of the Jim Crow “separate-but-equal” mantra.