“They don’t need to come here where people are second-class citizens when we pass legislation like this,” Sickles said.

He added that Republicans should not view the bill as a “free vote” due to its low chances of becoming law.

“Your vote will make a difference,” Sickles said. “Your kids will be looking back on what you do today and how you vote on this bill.”

The bill would prevent state agencies from altering tax treatment or canceling or reducing funding, contracts or other benefits for private entities based on beliefs that marriage is between a man and a woman, that sex should only occur within marriage or that the terms man and woman are based solely on biological sex.

Critics said the legislation would lead to government-sanctioned discrimination. Supporters argued that traditional beliefs should not be swept away by a fast-changing, secular culture.

Gilbert laid out a possible scenario in which tuition assistance could be denied for Lynchburg’s Liberty University based on the institution’s religious principles, which he said is one of many ways that religious people could be made to “cower and go away.”