Rep. LaVar Christensen, R-Draper, said Wednesday he is shelving a trio of bills that critics feared would gut discrimination protections for gay and transgender Utahns and void contracts between same-sex couples.

Christensen said the measures are too important to be rushed with only three weeks remaining in the 2011 session. The bills — currently labeled HB270, HB109 and HB182 — could return next year.

“I would like to have time for that dialogue to continue so there is no confusion, misunderstanding or unintended consequences in the bills as they may ultimately be adopted,” Christensen said in a statement.

Christensen’s “Religious Liberty Recognition and Protection Act,” HB109, would make the exercise of religious beliefs a “valid defense to claims of discrimination by others.” That could undermine newly minted ordinances in 11 Utah cities and counties that ban housing and employment discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

But it also could have “free-ranging” consequences in any case of discrimination, Marina Lowe, legislative and policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, said in an interview earlier this month. It could allow someone to cite religious beliefs to refuse restaurant service to ethnic minorities or to fire someone of a different faith.

“I read it as giving an express right to discriminate on the basis of religion,” she said. “It really represents a step backwards in our state to where we are with discrimination for a whole host of communities.”