While slick politicians try to find ways to spin "license to discriminate laws" that hide behind the guise of "religious protection," one GOP lawmaker, who claims to have "homosexual friends," is sponsoring a measure in Oklahoma and is flat out saying that LGBT citizens "don't have a right to be served in every single store," The New York Times reports.

With marriage equality the law in two-thirds of the country and highly publicized court cases involving bigoted bakers and photographers who are being found in violation of anti-discrimination laws, a number of state legislatures are taking up bills that will make it legal for businesses to deny services because of religious objections.

"The LGBT movement is the main thing, the primary thing that's going to be challenging religious liberties and the freedom to live out religious convictions," said GOP state senator Joseph Silk, who is currently sponsoring a "religious protections bill" in the Sooner State.

"They don't have a right to be served in every single store," the Republican lawmaker told The New York Times, referring to gay people. "People need to have the ability to refuse service if it violates their religious convictions."

Not wanting to be called insensitive, Silk told the NYT: "And I say that sensitively, because I have homosexual friends."

Silk is far from being a lone voice against LGBT rights in Oklahoma. In January, EDGE reported that his fellow GOP lawmaker filed three anti-gay measures with the state legislature, among which, was her own version of a "turn away the gays" law.

From our media partner EDGE