Topeka ? The Kansas Senate will debate a bill Thursday that would require colleges and universities to recognize exclusive religious student organizations and give them the same support they give to other student groups, if their exclusive membership rules are based on “sincerely held religious beliefs.”

Senate Bill 175 is just one of dozens of “religious freedom” bills pending in state legislatures around the country, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which says the bills are a method of legalizing discrimination, primarily against gays and lesbians.

“Just under half the states in this country are contemplating bills under the category of religious freedom,” said Eunice Roh, ACLU’s advocacy and policy counsel.

The bill would prohibit any post-secondary institution from taking any action or enforcing any policy that would deny a religious student group any benefit available to other student groups because of the group’s requirement that its leaders or members adhere to the group’s sincerely held religious beliefs.

The Kansas Board of Regents and Kansas University have non-discrimination policies that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity and a host of other factors.

Although there are many religious student organizations at KU and campuses throughout the state, many schools refuse to grant them official recognition or provide them with support services if their membership rules involve discrimination.

In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of a California law school to deny recognition to the Christian Legal Society, a student organization that requires its members to attest in writing to their belief in certain strict Christian creeds.

The University of California, Hastings School of Law based its policy on state law that requires all registered student organizations to allow “any student to participate, become a member, or seek leadership positions, regardless of their status or beliefs.”

“With SB 175, there is no single target within the bill,” Roh said. “You don’t see any mention of sexual orientation or gender or anything. But I think the context in which it’s being introduced, with the reaction to the Supreme Court case and also the other types of legislation in recent memory that have been introduced in Kansas, I think it’s difficult to avoid the implication that it is intended to discriminate against LGBT college students.”

In 2013, the Kansas House passed a “religious freedoms” bill that would have protected individuals and religious groups that discriminate against same-sex couples if that discrimination was based on religious beliefs about sex or gender.

That bill quickly died in the Senate after a storm of opposition from civil rights groups, as well as major businesses who said it would interfere with their own personnel management policies.