South Carolina H 3121: Confederate flags

Bill Text

2025-2026 Bill 3121 Text of Previous Version (Dec. 06, 2024) - South Carolina Legislature Online 

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026

Bill 3121

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A bill

TO AMEND THE SOUTH CAROLINA CODE OF LAWS BY ENACTING THE 
"LIVE AND LET LIVE ACT" BY ADDING ARTICLE 2 TO CHAPTER 32, TITLE 1 SO AS TO 
PROHIBIT THE STATE GOVERNMENT FROM DISCRIMINATING AGAINST CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS 
AND ORGANIZATIONS BASED ON THEIR BELIEFS REGARDING MARRIAGE AND A PERSON'S SEX; 
AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.

Be it enacted by the 
General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION 1. This act may be cited as the "Live and Let Live Act."

SECTION 2. The 
General Assembly hereby finds:

(1) Leading legal 
scholars concur that conflicts between same-sex marriage, gender identity 
ideology, and religious liberty are real and should be addressed through 
legislation.

(2) After the 
legalization of same-sex marriage, religious adoption and foster-care agencies 
in New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Illinois, and the District 
of Columbia were forced to close or are now facing closure because of their 
sincerely held religious beliefs about marriage. Also, a religious educational 
institution in Massachusetts was threatened by the government with loss of its 
accreditation because of its sincerely held religious beliefs about marriage. 
And small family-owned wedding businesses in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, 
Idaho and elsewhere have endured fines or financial penalties or been forced to 
close because they operated in a manner consistent with their sincerely held 
religious beliefs about marriage.

(3) Citizens of the 
State hold a wide range of reasonable views on the issue of same-sex marriage 
and the nature of male and female, and maintaining the state's commitment to 
religious freedom when faced with these good-faith differences of opinion is 
vital.

(4) Our nation has a 
long and honorable history of respecting and accommodating the religious 
freedom rights of its people, dating from before the American Revolution to the 
present. For example, laws have protected the right of Quakers and other 
pacifists to serve the nation as noncombatants in times of war, the right of 
Jews and other Sabbath observers to dedicate their time to God and family 
instead of work on their Sabbath, and the right of religious organizations to 
provide charitable services to the public in a manner consistent with their 
beliefs by hiring individuals who share the same beliefs.

(5) Protecting 
religious freedom from governmental intrusion is a state interest of the 
highest order. Legislation advances this interest by remedying, deterring, and 
preventing governmental interference with religious exercise in a way that 
complements the protections mandated by the state and federal constitutions.

(6) Protecting the 
religious freedom of faith-based charities and educational institutions serves 
the state's compelling interest in providing essential social services to the 
poor and educational opportunities to the next generation. This is also 
consistent with the state's long tradition of cooperating with religious 
organizations when providing these critical services.

(7) The State adopted 
the South Carolina Religious Freedom Act in 1999, making clear that it is 
unlawful to substantially burden a person's exercise of religion, even if the 
burden results from a facially neutral rule of general applicability, unless 
that application of the burden to the person is both (a) in furtherance of a 
compelling governmental interest, and (b) the least restrictive means of 
furthering that compelling governmental interest.

(8) In a pluralistic 
society, in which people of good faith hold more than one view of marriage, it 
is possible for the government to recognize same-sex marriage and to prohibit 
employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity without 
forcing persons with sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions to 
conform.

SECTION 
3.A. Chapter 32, Title 1 of the S.C. Code is 
amended by adding:

Article 2

Live and Let Live

 Section 
1-32-210. For purposes of this article:

 (1) 
"Adoption or foster care" or "adoption or foster care service" means social 
services provided to or on behalf of children, including:

 (a) 
assisting abused or neglected children;

 (b) 
teaching children and parents occupational, homemaking, or other domestic 
skills;

 (c) 
promoting foster parenting;

 (d) 
providing foster homes, residential care, group homes, or temporary group 
shelters for children;

 (e) 
recruiting foster parents;

 (f) 
placing children in foster homes;

 (g) 
licensing foster homes;

 (h) 
promoting adoption or recruiting adoptive parents;

 (i) 
assisting adoptions or supporting adoptive families;

 (j) 
performing or assisting