Am I responsible for their damnation if I let 'em serve me without mentioning that I'm gay and they don't guess it?
By John Moyers / AlterNet
March 28, 2015
The following is not snark. It's an honest and practical inquiry: How will merchants in Indiana determine which customers can now be refused service under the state's new "religious liberty" law?
Take sexual identity. If every LGBT person out there were a flamboyant drag queen, it might be easier for a merchant to decide who to refuse. But some gay people, like me, are just average white guys -- I don't swish, lisp or call everyone "honey," and if there's a song on my lips, it's more likely Jerry Garcia than Judy Garland.
What's a God-fearing Indiana merchant to do if I walk in the door? Am I responsible for his damnation if I let him serve me without mentioning that I'm gay and he doesn't guess it? Must he ask all customers about potential offenses to his faith?
Complicating things is the fact that some straight men are a bit effete and some straight women are kind of butch. Just because God made them like that doesn't mean their dry cleaning should get turned away.
So, perhaps Indiana now needs a law requiring I.D. cards for all citizens -- yellow for the heteros, pink for the homos -- to protect both the souls and the profits of faithful, freedom-loving Chamber of Commerce members. Or maybe gays should be required to tattoo their foreheads for quick identification. If so, the same should go for straight people who practice oral and anal sex, since what offends some religious beliefs is "sodomy" defined more broadly, not merely loving someone of the same gender.
What about Jews? Some conservative Christians believe God does not hear the prayers of a Jew. If He can discriminate that way, why can't a car salesman refuse to sell a Chevy? And what about adulterers? Indiana's new law is so broad, it clearly protects the freedom to deny service to adulterers if that offends sincerely held religious beliefs. If so, and there's going to be some sort of I.D. system adopted, it could incorporate a Scarlet Letter "A."
For more, go to: www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/why-gay-man-me-g … -religious
Why a Gay Man Like Me Is Going to Make It Hard for Indiana Shopkeepers to Exercise Their 'Religious Liberty'
I personally would love to see the leaders of the LGBT community write a bill of there own as a show of compromise. Just word it real pretty so the sheep think they are getting what they want when its actually just a useless reiteration of there current rites...... Politicians are already doing this anyway
Mainstream America is no longer anti-gay. In fact, 59 percent of Americans now support same-sex marriage, and much larger majorities oppose discrimination. Thus the GOP finds itself torn between the religious right voters in their primaries and a much more moderate general electorate. Eventually they will have to distance themselves from the rr, but they aren't close to that point yet.
The flap over the Indiana law is quite fascinating, because we are seeing that in play already. In this case, however, big business, which is the other influential arm of the GOP, is the one that appears to be prevailing on the issue. Witness Walmart's arm-twisting in Arkansas.
U.S. NEWS
Cruz, Bush, Rubio, Carson — the whole GOP clown car — cast their lot with Indiana’s anti-LGBT stance
ARTURO GARCIA
31 MAR 2015 AT 00:47 ET
While Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) has been the target of widespread criticism, he has garnered support from not only prospective Republican presidential candidates, but the first official entrant in the race, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
“Today we are facing a concerted assault on the First Amendment, on the right of every American to seek out and worship God according to the dictates of his or her conscience. Governor Pence is holding the line to protect religious liberty in the Hoosier State,” Cruz said. “Indiana is giving voice to millions of courageous conservatives across this country who are deeply concerned about the ongoing attacks upon our personal liberties. I’m proud to stand with Mike, and I urge Americans to do the same.”
McClatchy Newspapers reported that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) also endorsed Pence in an interview on Monday with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
“This is simply allowing people of faith space to be able to express their beliefs, to be able to be people of conscience,” he said. Bush also compared the Indiana law to both the 1993 federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act and a similar law in Florida. However, Fox News’ Bret Baier pointed out earlier in the day that the Indiana law is broader in nature than either of those laws.
CNN reported that the majority of the rest of the possible GOP primary contenders — Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Sen. Marco Rubio, former Rep. Rick Santorum and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson — all joined in on defending the bill, which has been met with outrage in several other quarters.
So far, none of the prospective presidential candidates has commented on Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard — a fellow Republican — openly defying the law on Monday by signing an executive order requiring local businesses to follow the city’s non-discrimination statute.
“Discrimination is wrong,” Ballard said. “And I hope that message is being heard loud and clear at our Statehouse.”
Nice video Furball
I have ZERO sympathy for the Republican Party's predicament. The Religious Right is, politically, a beast of their own creation, and it's only a matter of time before the monster that Ronald Reagan's political advisers created bites them in the butt big time. It's already done some damage, but it will only get worse as the RR becomes more and more out of step with the general American public.
Prior to Reagan, the RR was largely apolitical, and both major parties pretty much ignored them. As a result, there wasn't a *huge* amount of difference between the parties and they were able to do bipartisan work in state and national legislatures.
But then Reagan's people had the bright idea of trying to harvest those untapped votes, and while it worked for a while, the sad reality is that now the RR basically controls the state mechanisms of the party in quite a number of states, and not just in the South.
Although thanks to gerrymandering in the House and the inequitable distribution of seats in the Senate (small states have a disproportionate voice because of the 2-senators-per-state rule), the GOP has managed to hold its own if not dominate Congress, the sharp effects of the division between parties are really showing up in presidential elections. The more people vote, the worse the GOP does, and that's a trend that isn't likely to change until the GOP does.
@Bear--no in response to your question, it least on the Republican side. They will all attempt to distance their stances from the Indiana law, but if they want to make it through the Republican primaries they will have to pander to the evangelical crowd and it least state individuals right to religious freedom. How deftly they thread the needle without coming across like a bigot will be the story.
People aren't being fooled by this thinly disguised legislative discrimination. And now the GOP knows that acts like this do come with a high cost. I suspect this is a price that those in states with major urban centers will not want to pay. Who knows about smaller states like Arkansas?
The Indianapolis Star, in a very unusual editorial that takes up the entire front page of the paper, today calls on the Indiana Legislature to fix this mess by passing a human rights bill forbidding discrimination against gay people in housing, employment and accommodations.
This really puts Republican lawmakers on the spot, because as we all know, any Republican who does *anything* that the religious right perceives as "pro-gay" fears being punished for it.
We may be at a "Come to Jesus" moment for the Republican Party. It would be good for the nation if, for once, they would do the right thing.
Anyone think *any* of their multitude of presidential candidates will have the balls to stand up and be counted as being on the right side of history?
http://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/2015/03/30/ … /70698802/