Look around the world, and it’s all too easy to see homophobia gone wild. In Russia, vigilantes beat LGBT people in broad daylight, with the blessing of a government laws that forbid criminalize gay “propaganda.” Uganda President Yoweri Museveni is promising to sign a bill into law that would sentence gay people to lifetime imprisonment. Following passage of a law that makes homosexuality an offense punishable by 14 years in prison, Nigerian mobs have taken to beating gay men on the grounds that they are “cleansing the community”
And here in the U.S., we have Arizona.
Governor Jan Brewer is considering signing a law that would allow people to discriminate at will against LGBT people on the grounds of “religious liberty.” The bill is a response to a 2012 incident, in which a court allowed a gay couple to sue a photographer who refused to shoot photos at their commitment ceremony,
Brewer hasn’t indicated if she will sign the measure, passed almost entirely by Republicans, but she has shown herself to be antagonistic to LGBT rights. She fought a court ruling that overturned the state’s ban on domestic partnership benefits for Arizona employees and signed an antigay adoption bill into law.
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Perhaps Brewer aspires to become the Putin of the mesas. If so, she’s not getting support from anyone outside of her party’s right wing. Business leaders are aghast at the measure, and the Arizona Republic condemned it as “a do-it-yourself black eye that would tag Arizona as a champion of anachronistic views of sexual orientation.”
Of course, the religious right is behind the attacks on LGBT rights in Arizona and abroad. The Arizona bill is sponsored by the Center for Arizona Rights, which serves as a virtual arm of the conservative legislature. Like-minded right wingers, like Scott Lively, have been sowing the seeds of hatred overseas for years.
Will Brewer be willing to risk the reputation of her state? She already did once, by supporting a law that allowed police to stop anyone they thought might be an illegal immigrant. That’s the unfortunate thing about the right. Its hatred is rarely confined to a single group.
balehead
The Man hating mummy-face will do it…
litper
Send all republicans to concentration camps!
Harley
So the repugnant-Klans really DO like to spend taxpayers money on defending discriminatory laws based only on bigotry that they KNOW will never stand the test of time. The lawyers are going to make MILLIONS!!!!!
Respect4all
I hate to defend Arizona, but they don’t have state-sponsored murder of gay people there…yet.
Black Pegasus
I wonder if Miss Don Lemon will discuss this on her show tomorrow evening?
Cagnazzo82
Don’t forget Tehran… where they hanged two gays a while back for falling in love.
Jan apparently is looking to join such splendid company.
Respect4all
Is there anything in the Constitution about kicking a state out of the country? We could move the Grand Canyon to New Mexico.
jckfmsincty
Arizona: The New Mississippi
SteveDenver
My religion tells me not to serve Black people, not to pay minimum wage, and not to pay taxes. Telling me otherwise steps on my freedom of religion.
Kangol
@Respect4all:
That’s a pretty low bar. This is an extremely horrible, homophobic law. And you don’t even have to be gay, you just have to be thought to be gay, or bi, or trans! It’s homophobia and h@te taken to an insane level.
@SteveDenver:
It wasn’t just people’s religion that told them not to serve Black people. It was state-supported r@cism and wh!te supremacy. It was wrong and is wrong, and the state should not be supporting homophobia or taking away people’s human rights either.
No, Arizona, just don’t do this!
Mdterp01
And to think I actually considered moving to that backwards state a few years ago.
Mdterp01
@Black Pegasus:
That is so ignorant. Why are you referencing Don Lemon as “Miss” and “she”???
Respect4all
Let’s remember that in 30 states there are not laws to prevent a landlord from refusing to rent a house or apartment to an LGBT person, no laws to prevent an employer from refusing to hire an LGBT person, not laws to protect gay children from discrimination and bullying in schools. This is nothing new, but most of has have forgotten about it or ignored because of the obsessive focus on gay marriage sponsored by HRC and other white bourgeois gay organizations.
Captain proton
“That’s the unfortunate thing about the right. Its hatred is rarely confined to a single group.”
I would say this is the most fortunate thing. If they only hated one group, that group would have no allies in other minorities.
robirob
With local companies and businesses fearing financial losses based on next year’s Superbowl and the events around it being threatened by boycotts I doubt Jan Brewer will have the audacity to sign the bill and in fact veto it. She may be a bigot, but she won’t get in the way of powerful business owners’ potential profits.
Caleb in SC
@Mdterp01: Don’t worry too much. That is merely a bitchy queen throwing shade a la 1986. Very tired.
Mezaien
@Mdterp01: I am in Arizona, and we are looking for a HIT MAN that can do a good job on her!. Ask anyone from Texass, how many fingers they get in Tucson.
Mezaien
PS. GUYS DON`T FORGET THAT QUEERTY, AND GAYCITIES, SUPPORT WHITE CHRISTIAN REPUBLICAN. THEY WILL BLOCK YOU FROM THE SITE WHEN YOU SAY SOMETHING AGAINST THEM.
Mezaien
WHAT? THEY DIDN`T BLOCK ME YET??.
chaddyboy6
That law is stupid and should not be signed because…objectively…whether it is sound or not…right or not…a business owner should be able to refuse service to anyone they want…They own it and should be able to make decisions(good or bad and take the consequences of those decisions) and not be FORCED to provide goods and services to anyone…All relationships need to be voluntary….Those gay men should have found another florist…
With social media these days it is not a problem showing the world who the bad guys are and not patronizing their stores.
Also Brewer has not said or signed it and yet their is such vitriol against her…That is a real war on women….
chaddyboy6
such ignorance…what religion ever told anyone not to serve blacks…that nothing to do with religion…and what white supremacy? Where are the facts to back all this garbage up?
Kieran
What happens when “The Church of White Bible Protestant Supremacy” declares their religious right to discriminate against Catholics, blacks and Jews?
AZguyRy
Hypothetically, if own a print business in Wichita Kansas,and the Westboro Baptist Church comes in and wants me to print up a bunch of fliers that promote their hatred, I am not allowed to decline their business based on my moral objections to their agenda of hate? WE CAN’T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS FELLOW GAYS.
tjr101
@chaddyboy6: Have you been living under a rock? Throughout history the bible has been used as a valid reason to discriminate. Slavery and Jim Crow laws were justified by quoting the bibul.
And last I checked, Jan Brewer has certainly earned her stripes for all the vitriol she receives, now crawl away!
BJ McFrisky
Oh really? I absolutely guaran-fucking-tee that each and every one of you would rather spend a year in oh-so-oppressive Arizona (where they don’t embrace gays marrying) than spend a single day in oh-so-progressive Iraq (where they don’t embrace gays breathing).
Stop with this whiney manufactured dissent, and start addressing the real problems we face.
Respect4all
@chaddyboy6: That would be Christianity. In the white, Christian, God-fearing, black-hating South, ministers used slavery in the Bible to justify the subjugation of black people, before and after the Civil War. The genocide of Native Americans, expropriation of land and denial of their rights was justified by the fact that they were not Christians.
Respect4all
@AZguyRy: I don’t think they’re equivalent, but I won’t address that. My response is that I’d rather protect everyone’s rights, mine as well as the WBC’s, than have everyone get to pick and choose who they want to treat as a human being.
@BJ McFrisky: I agree that there are worse injustices than what is happening in Arizona, and there is certainly an excessive emphasis on gay marriage in this country, but your rhetoric is offensive. Protesting against discrimination and attacks on human rights is not ‘whining’. And to say that we shouldn’t protest oppressive practices in one place because there are worse abuses somewhere else is ridiculous. We can oppose oppression everywhere. However, as Americans, we have a greater ability to influence public policy in Arizona than in Iraq.
AZguyRy
@Respect4all How are they not equivalent? Please DO address this. Both are examples of a business owner refusing to run their business in a way they have a moral/religious objection to.
It is not the end of the world if a business owner is stupid enough to not want my gay $$–I will give it to someone who does!
tjr101
@Respect4all: you’re not familiar with BlowJobmcFriscky are you? He frequently defends the actions of right-wing republicans on this site.
Stefano
@AZguyRy : you are right. Gays need to be more adult and stop crying everytime someone calls them “fag”. LOL
BJ McFrisky
@tjr101: Doesn’t your childish name-calling fall under the category of “homophobic bullying”? Or is that the case only when you’re on the receiving end?
patronus
Hey, you left out Butch Otter, governor of Idaho and his anti-gay retinue. How easily it seems everyone forgets about Idaho: home to organized hate groups, Larry Craig, and the Boys of Boise gay witch hunt.
It is gay hate central, and recently received the coveted award as the most anti-gay place to live in the US! I’d say come visit Idaho, but for you better not.
Still, eat the potatoes: Otter convinced the farmers to hate the gays, but still the potatoes are good and a work of love.
tjr101
@BJ McFrisky: Aww, do you feel bullied? Call the waaambulance!
shadrak5
Another state we will have to boycott, and it has so much history and natural beauty going for it too. We’ve been there for vacations three times, but now, maybe not a fourth.
Atomicrob
Hopefully Brewer will realize the LGBT community will take stand anywhere discrimination rears it’s ugly head and veto the bill for the greater good. If not, I guess I won’t be visiting the spa at Camelback any time in the near future.
manjoguy
Ah, the intolerance of tolerance. We gays expect tolerance but we should be willing to give it. I feel bad that some business in Arizona would reject me, but there are other businesses there I can go to. I want to be tolerant of someone’s religious beliefs.
newecreator
My ex is living in Arizona. Oh god.
ED49
What’s alarming is that this bitch has followers and vote for her.she and Pat Robertson need a strap on and do each other