Anyone else notice that the law specifically focusses on “religious beliefs”? In other words, superstitious beliefs? Can’t we just move on from such medievilsms?
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Those of you who are interested in finding out the facts for yourselves can find the bill here http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/51leg/2r/bills/sb1062s.pdf and the existing law here http://www.azleg.gov/FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=/ars/41/01493.htm&Title=41&DocType=ARS . After reading these it seems to me that the hysteria about this law is unjustified. The bill doesn’t seem to drastically change the existing law. The law or the bill doesn’t mention homosexuality at all nor does it say that anyone can refuse service to anyone else. It governs land use and zoning laws and says that licensing can not be denied to someone for refusing to act against her religious beliefs. Yes, it could be used by a licensed professional to deny service to an LGBT person. It can also be used by a Jewish butcher to refuse to slaughter a pig. It could be used by a Moslem barber to refuse to cut the hair of someone of the opposite sex. It seems to only address licensed professions and land use.
why wait. out of principle just boycott arizona now for even floating the idea of such an unconstitutional law in the first place.
Maybe some evangelicals love the idea of suffering for their faith so much that they want everyone else to suffer for it too?
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Hey! Thanks for the all the facts! So many facts up in your post to digest. Couple of trifling points though:
“Yes, it could be used by a licensed professional to deny service to an LGBT person.”
Yeah exactly, you totally hit the nail on the head there. You do realize that?
“It can also be used by a Jewish butcher to refuse to slaughter a pig.”
It could also be used by a xtian to refuse to issue a driver’s license to a menstruating female based on their old testament (or “ol’ testy”, as i like to call it) beliefs that these women are filthy and unclean and possibly filled with devil juice. Also, now that I think of it. I will not issue any driver’s licenses to any women ever because, well, because, jesus n’ stuff. Ipso Facto!
"It seems to only address licensed professions and land use. "
Phew.
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I guess you´re the type who really values his freedom, whatever that is, above all else and wants to keep the meddling of government in your own business to a minimum, right?
Does that mean you value the freedom to discriminate against a certain group of people above said group´s freedom to go about their own business without discrimination?
Since you can´t have both, how do you decide which is the more important freedom?
Would you value a business’s freedom to refuse service to blond people (just to pick another random minority)?
If everyone keeps refusing to deal with anyone that´s not the same as they are or that they don´t particularly like, at what point do you think society would collapse?
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So, that means, then, that an EMT could deny lifesaving care to a Muslim for religious reasons, or a hotel could put up a “No Catholics Allowed” sign and get away with it, or a homeowners’ association could vote to kick the Jews out of the neighborhood. Some religions consider blacks to be racially inferior, so a landlord would be in his rights to refuse to rent to them. Belong to the “wrong” Christian church? No hospital treatment for you!
It’s Jim Crow 2.0, based on a dog-whistle meaning of “religious freedom.” This bill needs to be stomped out of existence. It pisses all over the notion of equal protection under the law.
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Fuck Arizona if that state can’t get these Republican and libertarian pieces of shit out of office.
I really miss the days when “Libertarian” meant something closer to Robert Heinlein and further from Glenn Beck…
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Nice example of the No True Scotsman logical fallacy.
I stand with my LGBT friends and I live in Arizona, at least last I checked and I don’t ‘Pretend’ to live here either.
Why are you so filled with hate? Is the world such a scary place to you that you have to be so hateful? If that’s the case want a hug?
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Bravo, George!
If even a single company decides to bypass AZ because of this law, that’s jobs, sales and profits lost. Hit assholes like this in their wallets so that they actually get the message. The internet, fortunately, now has the power to make a boycott like this Real!
If you decide that having dealings with moneylenders is against your sincerely held religious beliefs, does Arizona law allow you to stiff your mortgage company? Or do you still have to pay the principal on your mortgage?
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You’d be doing them a service, when you think about it. What if somebody puts The Gay in the water and it spreads? Cutting off the supply is the only way to help them protect themselves.
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Laws aren’t created or enforced in a vacuum. It’s all very well to point out the oh-so-innocuous language in the bill, but it’s disingenuous to ignore the stated motivations of people supporting it. Not all Jim Crow laws explicitely stated who they were designed to discriminate against, but the intent and targets were clear.
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Just to name one example, Intel was willing to quit supporting the Boy Scouts over discrimination against gays, and they are a major employer and investor in Arizona, with several fabs there. I can’t imagine them closing one down, but I can imagine them choosing to build the new one in, say, Oregon, when the current ones are phased out.
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Whether or not it’s signed in to law, the NFL should move the Super Bowl right now. And any company planning on having a conference in AZ should move it as well. Come to think of it, any business offering service to Arizona should simply cut it off - even just for a day to send a message. Imagine if Google just turned off the internet for AZ - no gmail, no search. Netflix shuts down streaming, Amazon stops shipping anything… maybe even a server side script that could be written to block all traffic to websites coming from Arizona.
Hey Arizona, you want to live with your 18th century “morality” how about you live like it’s the 18th century.
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It’s already happening: local news is that the Governor got a call from a corporation that Arizona has been courting and said corp has changed its plans based on the Legislature’s move – doesn’t matter whether the bill gets vetoed or not.
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Well. . . this IS a Representative Republic. If enough people in Arizona support such a law, and inform their elected representatives to pass and enforce it. . . that’s their business.
After all, the most fundamental right of all is to do something mind-numbingly stupid, and have the results slap you upside the head repeatedly. . . .
Yep, well, hate to throw the baby out with the bathwater but I will be avoiding every square inch of any state where such a law is in effect.
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George’s partner is a native and George has been spending at least as much time here over the past 30 years as John McCain has.
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I don’t think the yuppies are the ones enacting this bigoted law.
Do you support the bigoted law?
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