Just a week ago, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence was just beginning to see the momentum building against his state for passing a bill that made it safe for businesses to discriminate if they hid behind their religious beliefs. Now Indiana lawmakers are trying their best to make believe that nothing ever really happened because they “fixed” the law.
The speed with which the change took place proves that even a bad bill can lead to good results. Homophobia was always a feature of the Indiana law (and the Arkansas law), not a bug. Yet with its passage, the Indiana law led to major changes in the conversation about LGBT rights, changes that can’t be revoked.
Here are five ways that the landscape is now changed thanks to the bad motives of Indiana legislators…
1. Nondiscrimination protections are now the floor, not the ceiling. Getting a nondiscrimination bill passed in a state like Indiana was always an uphill battle. Now it’s a given in the media and the national conversation that the lack of workplace and housing protections is considered an oversight at minimum and more likely a scandal. There’s no need to justify the need for protections. It’s the absence of them that needs justification.
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2. Even homophobes have to prove they aren’t discriminating. That’s why Indiana Republicans had to insert language (absurd as it may be) that explicitly states that the religious freedom law can’t be used to deny services. It’s a subtle, but major shift: the need to swear you never intended to discriminate against LGBT citizens. In the past, no one would have felt obliged to say as much, even as lip service. (Of course, let’s not forget that discrimination was the whole point of the bill in the first place.)
3. The “special rights” rhetoric is dead. For the longest time, granting the LGBT any kind of protection was termed “special rights.” No one used that rhetoric this time around. If anything, the Indiana law looked suspiciously like special rights for the religious right–which, of course, it was.
4. North Dakota (!). Just to prove how much the landscape changed in just a week, North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple felt the need to send a memo to state offices saying that government discrimination against anyone is illegal. Dalrymple is trying to hold back a push by Democrats for an executive order specific to protecting the LGBT community. It’s impossible to imagine having that debate in North Dakota just a few weeks ago.
5. Big business has spoken with one voice. Apple, Wal-Mart, Salesforce, Angie’s List, Lilly, Cummins–the array of corporations that came out against the Indiana law and for nondiscrimination protections proved once and for all that big business is firmly in favor of LGBT rights. More to the point, they are willing to put political muscle behind it and fight the GOP, even though they are often allied with the party on economic issues.
You can argue of course that it’s all about image and protecting themselves against financial fallout, but corporations don’t throw their political weight around lightly. It’s one thing to sign a letter in favor of marriage equality. It’s another to lean on a political ally in advance, the way Wal-Mart did with Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchison.
We’ll be feeling the ripple effect of the Indiana law for a long time. It’s certainly going to be an issue in the 2016 GOP presidential campaign, as conservative evangelicals press candidates to swear their allegiance to religious liberty exemptions. But one thing is for certain. It’s not going to be the same conversation we were having before the Indiana law passed.
Photo credit: Michael Downey
gaym50ish
Maybe the Republican Party leaders will come to understand that by sucking up to the religious right, they will alienate an even more important constituency — the business community, which is where much of the campaign money resides. Aside from a few companies such as Chik-fil-A, major corporations have clearly shown that they are on the side of equality.
It’s ironic that the Republicans’ very first announced presidential candidate, Ted Cruz, has forcefully proclaimed himself to be on the WRONG side of this issue. I guess he hasn’t read the polls that seem to indicate he doesn’t have a chance in Hell if he continues to preach homophobia.
AtticusBennett
@gaym50ish: the GOP cannot, and will not, embrace a pro-LGBT platform.
they can’t. for a very specific reason – their fiscal policies screw over the working and middle classes. do you think the wealthiest people in america CARE about LGBT issues? they dont’1 they care about money.
the people who care about LGBT issues, negatively, are America’s Most Stupid – and the GOP tricks them, every year, into voting against their own best economic interests. they can’t say “hey! vote for us and you won’t get a tax break! but the wealthy will! and your healthcare won’t improve! and your kid will keep on getting fatter!”
instead they say: “vote for us and we’ll make sure that your state enshrines CHRISTIANITY into its constitution and we stop those gays from coming into your church to provide abortions and turn your sons into fashion stylists”
that’s the deal that they made. and they’re stuck with it. the GOP, as we know it, is doomed.
it’s the go-to party for every ignorant bigot in america.
Celtic
While I find this article encouraging, I am not yet ready to strike up the band and go down the street marching to victory songs. This Indiana “event” has fomented a new mountain of gay hate from the right. It is depressing to witness the number of people who proclaim being “Christian” acting out in anything but Christian ways. Demonizing homosexuals may make them feel better, but in truth they are slime and excrement of human existence. What gays want is equality — full, unabridged equality. If you dislike how we enjoy our sex, then think about something else. The problem is “they” think too much about gay sex (Robertson, Santorum, Cruz and a whole host of vile piles of human waste). Psychologists, psychiatrists and behavioral therapists can offer extensive insight on people who are obsessed with a particular type of behavior: Usually they are craving it. So, while I might feel encouraged by this article, I will continue to remain vigilant for gays and lesbians because we “ain’t out of the woods yet” when it comes to full and equal rights. There is an evil element in this country ginning up a large backlash against us. “Be prepared”, the motto of the Boy Scouts of America (yeah, that one!) that I learned as a young not yet to be declared gay male.
onthemark
#6. The Republican primary candidates are boxed in. Because they all need to pander to the extreme rightwing Xtian fundy base (especially in Iowa & SC), all of them try to outdo each other in defending the original law. They gotta win that R nomination first, but to get there they need to look like loons for the next several months. None will even pretend to be rational in a way that might have appealed to general election voters.
TheNewEnergyDude
Boy…it’d be nice if there was an actual republicsn who was fiscally conservative but socially progressive and told all the fundies to go fuck themselves.
But then I guess they would be a democrat, lol.
Too bad the pins are really digging their own graves.
thecoloradohiker
I wish there were more people like some of the gay community that has been supportive of the law. I have about quit reading Queety because it is many of their stories that are VERY skewed and uniformed. I am gay. Been with the same person for 20 years. I own a business. I am proud to be a conservative republican, It is this type of divide incited by the media and the democratic party that divide the nation for their benefits. They do not care about us or our orientation. It is about corrupt voting by both parties but each one relies on single issue voter…i.e. Obama lied about the things he would do to help us and told other groups what he would do against us. Wake up America. The best way to keep people against a group of people, any group, gay, Christian, white, brown, black whatever is to cause a divide between everyone. If people started voting for what was a fiscally sound policy and not give me give me give me or poor me I am gay and you discriminate against me. Name one group in the US that is not discriminated against!!!!!! They like it that way. Try listening to the meaning not what you want to hear. As long at the democrats can get each of you to drink the kool aid they can take away all of your rights. I am gay. I DO NOT want special rights, different rights, only those granted by the Constitution. NO more NO less. That is what a free society is about. Lets turn the page. If you were a gay business owner and group approached you to host an event to cater for the we hate gays or we hate white people or Jews or whatever………if I hear all of the single issue gay people out their they would say they would not do that because they feel it is wrong. That is what America is about. FREEDOM that has been taken little by little. And whether you want to see it or continue to live with wool over your eyes, this has nothing to do with a religious group against gays. It is about restoring the rights of a business owner to choose whether or not he wants to support events. It is not about serving anyone pizza it was about many other issues that the single issue person is afraid to read. If you were to go by what I hear day after day in the gay community, each person should be told they cannot support their beliefs as an American Citizen because it might hurt some poor person feelers. So, if you were to read the rest of the law and the intent of the laws, it is giving the rights to businesses, gay, straight, Jewish, Catholic, no matter what to be able to follow their beliefs. I can guarantee if a gay business said I do not want to serve straight people this story would not be on any posts.
Wake up to the world around you and see what is really going on. Not what the new tells you what they think you need to hear.I will and never have voted for a candidate based upon promises of what they will give you. Instead I have voted for the ones that say they will proved the constitution. All the rights ANY person needs is in the constitution, the problem is our politicians are wiping their ass with it instead of following it. I am sure everyone will slam me and call me satan and a hater and everything they can come up with. Please do. That is in the constitution too. I enjoy a good laugh at comments made by single issue single minded people. By the way, have you heard the high profile gays who have come out to support the laws…….I have, but I do not stay tuned to this is what we want you to hear networks. I listen and read all types of articles and shows. Please stop and think before you allow the morons in Washington to erase the America that gives each and every person equal (NOT SPECIAL) rights that many of you so ignorantly slander as hating gays. There are people that hate some groups and even their own groups. So what do you want. Laws that protect each individual right of every group. Explain how that is possible. What is possible is to read, believe and follow the Constitution of the United Staes of America. The only document that has kept us a democracy. Go ahead haters……reply away. Then after you have your tempter tantrum stop and really think about what I said.
edwardnvirginia
This is indeed remarkable change! But, the title of the article is incorrect: protection of religious liberty is not anti-gay.
Constitutional scholars, allegiance to the American Founders’s idealism, and common sense requires that society do both things Constitutionally: a. protect the liberty of religious practice, and b. ensure nondiscrimination that protects against unfair and prejudiced treatment.
gaym50ish
@edwardnvirginia: Nondiscrimination laws are not a threat to religious practice.
These laws have existed for decades and in some places have also included sexual orientation as a criteria for decades. Some Christian business owners believe in separation of the races, and some believe that Jews are enemies of Christianity, but religious views never excused anyone from a charge of racial or religious discrimination. In fact, nondiscrimination laws were not even controversial until gay marriage was possible.
Nobody’s right to worship as they choose is threatened. But a business serving the public is licensed by a state and often a municipality, and the licensing authority gives those government entities the right to make the rules for how they will do business. That may mean abiding by a nondiscrimination law, and if an owner is not OK with that he or she should not be allowed to HAVE a business license.
Giancarlo85
@edwardnvirginia: You need to retake a civics class. Religious liberty doesn’t mean the protection from criticism. Many religious conservatives, such as yourself, fail to realize your ideas aren’t protected from criticism. And when someone criticizes your chosen religious beliefs they aren’t discriminating against you.
No ones religious beliefs are under assault. Not even with those florists and bakers. They need to comply with nondiscrimination laws and if they are business to serve the public, they need to serve everyone without discriminating against them.
Giancarlo85
@thecoloradohiker: You are full of yourself. You claim Obama lied, yet you can’t point out where. And in the same breath you claim to be a conservative Republican, and if I pointed out all the lies of the Republican party it would fill up this page. This law is disgusting and over broad.
And democrats are not dividing this country or using gay people for some agenda. You seem to have some demented logic. And yes, feel free to continue supporting a political party that hates you and an ideology that is contradictory to true freedom. As a gay person I am a real leftist. The democratic party is right of center. And then we have extremists like you.
By the way, you too need to take a civics class. The constitution is something you seem to understand very little. And this nation isn’t a democracy. Learn about the reality please and open your eyes! This nation is a republic with three branches of government that balance each other. This is called a system of checks and balances. Someone like you refuses to recognize that.
What special rights are being given to gay people? Yes you the self hater you are won’t be able to answer that.
IvanPH
It is quite ironic that the law which intends to be anti-LGBT has become Indiana’s first ever state law to mention protection for the LGBTs. Lol
Celtic
@thecoloradohiker: SO much rage and anger. OMG, man, are you really paying close attention to what is taking place? There is a tsunami of gay hate raging across the land, fueled by Republicans. I have no qualms with your being Republican. But, in being a Republican you already have supported those in your Party who want to decimate the gay culture into some historical oblivion. And, before you jump to conclusions as you did in your rant, no, I am not a Democrat. I am an Independent. Frankly, both parties suck big time and the only reason I support the Democratic Party is because they still have some humanity left; of which the Republicans can claim zero.
Giancarlo85
@thecoloradohiker: And you seem to delude yourself into thinking you are not a single issue voter. How can you accuse people of that? Yes, typical accusation made by the self hating gay Republican. People like me care about a variety of issues. Like the economy, the integrity of the judicial system which is constantly threatened by Republicans, the environment which is also threatened by Republicans, healthcare, education and a variety of other issues.
You sir are a walking contradiction and a joke. Have you recently seen that lame excuse of a budget your political party passed? Major cuts to healthcare and education and increases to defense? Even Eisenhower would be rolling in his grave seeing the disgraceful bunch you are.
He warned people about the military industrial complex and misplaced power. The defense corporations control your party. Your party is a severe threat to the people of this country and stability.
Giancarlo85
He is hilarious. Talking about division. The Republicans are the ones dividing this country. They talk hate to women, LGBT people, immigrants and many others. Why should I believe a word that clown has said?
I am not of either party. I think democrats are right of center. Republicans are far right.
passingthru
@thecoloradohiker: I believe that you are fake. I read about half of your nonsense and figured out that you’re a fraud and your rant isn’t worth my time. Next…..
Celtic
Well, the lad does have issues for sure!! Plus, he might want to spell check before posting!
1EqualityUSA
Even if, and this is a humongous, “if,” the Republicans did relax their stance on equality issues, they would still have creeps appointed to the Supreme Court for life-time positions. Citizens United, gutting the Voter Rights Act, Hobby-lobby, and more political gems. No, no Republicans for as long as possible.
Jax Blaze
True Dat
Jeffery Hibbard
hoping michigan will be next