With regards to the following piece from Daily Kos, all I can say is...
Bravo. Probably the best post I've ever read from them, and I read them every single day.
Equal rights for all: Women, Minorities, all Religions, Atheists, LGBT folks, etc... Nothing short of this is acceptable. And yet states like Indiana and Arkansas and Georgia and Nevada and too many others are doing their damnedest to go in the wrong direction.
These laws have long since ceased to be about protecting religious freedom, because nobody's "religious practices" are threatened by doing business with a gay person. (Or a black person, or a Jewish person, etc...) If you are in the business of selling bread for $2 that costs you $1 to make, you are not HARMED if a gay person buys some: You are $1 ahead. End of story. It's THAT SIMPLE. It is not a burden to anyone to expect them to do business, in the very business that they went into business to do! It benefits them. Tangibly. Expecting someone to drive farther, pay more or go without IS doing harm. It imposes a burden on that person, a tangible, economic burden that is the precise, legal DEFINITION of harm.
Arguably the stupidest defense I hear of these laws was the following:
Governor Pence? That's ALL JESUS DID. His ENTIRE LIFE was about WELCOMING SINNERS! That's pretty much ALL HE DID! Also? (you ignorant fuck) WE ARE ALL SINNERS. And should anyone say otherwise they are automatically committing the sin of PRIDE. For you to claim that this law is what Jesus wants is to take the Lord's name in vain, to the highest degree.
MARK 2 13-17 JESUS IS A FRIEND OF SINNERS!
And you, sir, are no friend to mankind, or to civilized society.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"
Does that sound familiar Governor? It should: You put your right hand on the Bible and swore to uphold it (not the other way around!) when you were sworn into office. How about:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Pretty "American" sounding, no? What part of that suggests that we discriminate? What part of that says that people should be limited in their choice of who they love? Or marry? What part of ANY of this allows one person to use their "deeply held religious beliefs" to harm another?
YOUR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM ENDS AT THE TIP OF MY NOSE.
And your law is a disgrace.
It is NOT like so many others - established to protect ACTUAL religious practices, particularly those of minority religions and Native Americans. It is a perversion of those laws, twisted to amount to no more that a political backlash against the progress that's been made against the bigotry that holds us back from bringing TRUE equality under the law to all people.
I don't want my country back. I want a better country. One that truly provides liberty and justice for all people. And I certainly don't want a country where anyone can discriminate against anyone else of whom they do disapprove and escape liability for that immoral and otherwise unlawful act under any pretext, be it freedom of religion, racial superiority or traditional values.
I never want to go back to the country that existed when I was born. The one that exists now needs far too much improvement as it is.
Bravo, Steven. Bravo.
