Proposed legislation that would allow discrimination against LGBT people based on religious beliefs failed or faced major setbacks in four separate states Tuesday, dealing a significant blow to what some have seen as a new front for LGBT rights opponents.

"[Tuesday was] a very important rebuffing of the latest anti-gay and anti-choice tactics, but I wouldn't say that we're out of the woods yet," said Evan Wolfson, president and founder of Freedom to Marry. "Our opponents have lost the argument about gay people, they've lost the argument about marriage and all they have left is distractions, diversions, and desperate attempts to carve out the license to discriminate as they have tried in every other civil rights chapter in our nation's history."

Lawmakers in Idaho, Kansas, South Dakota, and Tennessee either voted down, blocked, or backtracked on legislation in the states that would have allowed individuals, religious organizations, businesses, and, in the case of Kansas, government employees to discriminate against LGBT people in the form of denying services and other recognition based on religious beliefs.

LGBT and civil rights advocates say that while the battle over these issues is far from over, Tuesday's developments are encouraging and could send signals to other states contemplating similar measures.

"This is an incredible development and very encouraging," said Eunice Rho, advocacy and policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union. "People across the country are seeing discrimination is just wrong, plain and simple, no matter how they try to justify it with these bills."

The bills come in the wake of the growing marriage equality movement in the United States, where marriage is legal for same-sex couples in 17 states and the District of Columbia, and where federal courts have struck down marriage bans in Oklahoma, Utah, and Virginia in recent months.

Although Idaho, Kansas, South Dakota, and Tennessee do not allow marriage for same-sex couples, lawmakers backing the bills say the proposals are preemptive measures to protect businesses with religious beliefs should same-sex couples be allowed to marry there someday, citing cases where businesses were sued for denying services to same-sex couples.

"Just in the last week and a half, we've seen liberal, activist judges overrule the will of the people in our neighboring states, Kentucky and Virginia, by overturning their constitutional amendments defining marriage as between a man and a woman," said Sen. Mike Bell, sponsor of the Tennessee bill. "And it's shame, it's a shame that we're here discussing the protections of business owners' rights in this regards. Because of liberal court judges across the country, we must stand prepared."

Moments later, Bell pulled the bill from the state's Senate Judiciary Committee after concluding with legal experts that the state's law already "protects our business owners from the type of lawsuit harassment we've seen in other states."

But opponents of these bills say they are "trojan horses" and would ultimately undermine nondiscrimination and human rights laws at municipal and state levels. They are "a dangerous solution to a nonproblem," Wolfson said.