Opponents of Arizona bill targeting gays protest
By ASTRID GALVAN, Associated Press
Updated 5:29 pm, Friday, February 21, 2014
PHOENIX (AP) — An estimated 250 people who gathered at the Arizona Capitol demanded Gov. Jan Brewer veto legislation that would allow business owners to refuse to serve gays by citing their religious beliefs.
Friday afternoon's protests come a day after the House passed a bill pushed by conservative Republicans that adds protections from discrimination lawsuits to individuals and businesses.
The Senate passed the same bill on Wednesday. Gov. Jan Brewer must sign or veto Senate Bill 1062 by the end of next week.
Protesters held signs that read "No religion should be for discrimination" and "What about love thy neighbor." They repeatedly chanted "veto this bill."
Republicans say the law is needed to protect people who have legitimate religious objections to gay marriage. Democrats argue it will be a license to discriminate.
Jesus Castro-Byrd, who attended the protest with his husband, said the bill was going to hurt Arizona's economy and reputation. Like many others, he said Arizona already suffered too many consequences when it passed immigration crack-down law Senate Bill 1070.
"We have to voice our rights and stand up for what we believe," he said.
Cheri White said she jumped in the car with her daughter and two grandchildren when she learned of the protest. The family drove from Cornville, Ariz., near Sedona, to attend.
White said the bill was discriminatory and that she didn't want her grandchildren to grow up with it.
"We want them to be able to be free and happy," she said.
Social conservatives and libertarian-minded members of the GOP believe the legislation protects the First Amendment rights of business owners who are expressing their religious beliefs.
The new legislation was passed over the shrill objections of Democrats who said it was clearly designed to allow discrimination against gays. All but three Republicans in the Legislature voted in favor of the bill.
source
Don't be Gay in Arizona
Re: Don't be Gay in Arizona
"Ladies and Gentlmen, we will shortly be landing in Arizona. Please set your watches back fifty years."
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Don't be Gay in Arizona
Or more. These are Reagan Republicans. They harken back to a golden era, which never existed.
"When I was a boy, there were no race problems." RR
yrs,
rubato
"When I was a boy, there were no race problems." RR
yrs,
rubato
Re: Don't be Gay in Arizona
I guess it's okay to be gay in Arizona for now...
Arizona governor vetoes religious freedom bill
By BOB CHRISTIE, Associated Press
Updated 5:04 pm, Wednesday, February 26, 2014
PHOENIX (AP) — Gov. Jan Brewer on Wednesday vetoed a Republican bill that set off a national debate over gay rights, religion and discrimination and subjected Arizona to blistering criticism from major corporations and political leaders from both parties.
Her decision defused a national furor over gay rights and religious freedom.
"My agenda is to sign into law legislation that advances Arizona," Brewer said at a news conference. "I call them like I seem them despite the tears or the boos from the crowd."
The governor said she gave the legislation careful deliberation in talking to her lawyers, citizens and lawmakers on both sides of the debate.
The bill backed by Republicans in the Legislature was designed to give added protection from lawsuits to people who assert their religious beliefs in refusing service to gays. But opponents called it an open attack on gays that invited discrimination.
The bill thrust Arizona into the national spotlight last week after both chambers of the state legislature approved it. As the days passed, more and more groups, politicians and average citizens weighed in against Senate Bill 1062. Many took to social media to criticize the bill, calling it an attack on gay and lesbian rights.
Prominent Phoenix business groups said it would be another black eye for the state that saw a national backlash over its 2010 immigration-crackdown law, SB1070, and warned that businesses looking to expand into the state may not do so if bill became law.
Companies such as Apple Inc. and American Airlines and politicians including GOP Sen. John McCain and former Republican presidential nominee were among those who urged Brewer to veto the legislation.
Brewer was under intense pressure to veto the bill, including from three Republicans who had voted for the bill last week. They said in a letter to Brewer that while the intent of their vote "was to create a shield for all citizens' religious liberties, the bill has been mischaracterized by its opponents as a sword for religious intolerance."
SB 1062 allows people to claim their religious beliefs as a defense against claims of discrimination. Backers cite a New Mexico Supreme Court decision that allowed a gay couple to sue a photographer who refused to document their wedding, even though the law that allowed that suit doesn't exist in Arizona.
Republican Sen. Steve Yarbrough called his proposal a First Amendment issue during a Senate debate.
"This bill is not about allowing discrimination," Yarbrough said. "This bill is about preventing discrimination against people who are clearly living out their faith."
Democrats said it was a veiled attempt to legally discriminate against gay people and could allow people to break nearly any law and cite religious freedom as a defense.
"The heart of this bill would allow for discrimination versus gays and lesbians," said Sen. Steve Gallardo, D-Phoenix. "You can't argue the fact that bill will invite discrimination. That's the point of this bill. It is."
The bill is similar to a proposal last year brought by Yarbrough but vetoed by Brewer, a Republican. That legislation also would have allowed people or religious groups to sue if they believed they might be subject to a government regulation that infringed on their religious rights. Yarbrough stripped that provision from the bill in the hopes Brewer will embrace the new version.
Civil-liberties and secular groups countered that Yarbrough and the Center for Arizona Policy, a powerful social conservative group that backs anti-abortion and conservative Christian legislation in the state and is opposed to gay marriage, had sought to minimize concerns that last year's bill had far-reaching and hidden implications.
Yarbrough called those worries "unrealistic and unsupported hypotheticals" and said criminal laws will continue to be prosecuted by the courts.
The Center for Arizona Policy argues the law is needed to protect against increasingly activist federal courts and simply clarifies existing state law. "We see a growing hostility toward religion," said Josh Kredit, legal counsel for the group.
Similar religious-protection legislation has been introduced in Ohio, Mississippi, Idaho, South Dakota, Tennessee and Oklahoma, but Arizona's plan is the only one that has been passed by a state legislature. The efforts are stalled in Idaho, Ohio and Kansas.
The push in Arizona comes as an increasing number of conservative states grapple with ways to counter the growing legality of gay marriage. Arizona's voters approved a ban on gay marriage as a state constitutional amendment in 2008. It is one of 29 states with such constitutional prohibitions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Federal judges have recently struck down those bans in Utah, Oklahoma and Virginia, but those decisions are under appeal.
source
Arizona governor vetoes religious freedom bill
By BOB CHRISTIE, Associated Press
Updated 5:04 pm, Wednesday, February 26, 2014
PHOENIX (AP) — Gov. Jan Brewer on Wednesday vetoed a Republican bill that set off a national debate over gay rights, religion and discrimination and subjected Arizona to blistering criticism from major corporations and political leaders from both parties.
Her decision defused a national furor over gay rights and religious freedom.
"My agenda is to sign into law legislation that advances Arizona," Brewer said at a news conference. "I call them like I seem them despite the tears or the boos from the crowd."
The governor said she gave the legislation careful deliberation in talking to her lawyers, citizens and lawmakers on both sides of the debate.
The bill backed by Republicans in the Legislature was designed to give added protection from lawsuits to people who assert their religious beliefs in refusing service to gays. But opponents called it an open attack on gays that invited discrimination.
The bill thrust Arizona into the national spotlight last week after both chambers of the state legislature approved it. As the days passed, more and more groups, politicians and average citizens weighed in against Senate Bill 1062. Many took to social media to criticize the bill, calling it an attack on gay and lesbian rights.
Prominent Phoenix business groups said it would be another black eye for the state that saw a national backlash over its 2010 immigration-crackdown law, SB1070, and warned that businesses looking to expand into the state may not do so if bill became law.
Companies such as Apple Inc. and American Airlines and politicians including GOP Sen. John McCain and former Republican presidential nominee were among those who urged Brewer to veto the legislation.
Brewer was under intense pressure to veto the bill, including from three Republicans who had voted for the bill last week. They said in a letter to Brewer that while the intent of their vote "was to create a shield for all citizens' religious liberties, the bill has been mischaracterized by its opponents as a sword for religious intolerance."
SB 1062 allows people to claim their religious beliefs as a defense against claims of discrimination. Backers cite a New Mexico Supreme Court decision that allowed a gay couple to sue a photographer who refused to document their wedding, even though the law that allowed that suit doesn't exist in Arizona.
Republican Sen. Steve Yarbrough called his proposal a First Amendment issue during a Senate debate.
"This bill is not about allowing discrimination," Yarbrough said. "This bill is about preventing discrimination against people who are clearly living out their faith."
Democrats said it was a veiled attempt to legally discriminate against gay people and could allow people to break nearly any law and cite religious freedom as a defense.
"The heart of this bill would allow for discrimination versus gays and lesbians," said Sen. Steve Gallardo, D-Phoenix. "You can't argue the fact that bill will invite discrimination. That's the point of this bill. It is."
The bill is similar to a proposal last year brought by Yarbrough but vetoed by Brewer, a Republican. That legislation also would have allowed people or religious groups to sue if they believed they might be subject to a government regulation that infringed on their religious rights. Yarbrough stripped that provision from the bill in the hopes Brewer will embrace the new version.
Civil-liberties and secular groups countered that Yarbrough and the Center for Arizona Policy, a powerful social conservative group that backs anti-abortion and conservative Christian legislation in the state and is opposed to gay marriage, had sought to minimize concerns that last year's bill had far-reaching and hidden implications.
Yarbrough called those worries "unrealistic and unsupported hypotheticals" and said criminal laws will continue to be prosecuted by the courts.
The Center for Arizona Policy argues the law is needed to protect against increasingly activist federal courts and simply clarifies existing state law. "We see a growing hostility toward religion," said Josh Kredit, legal counsel for the group.
Similar religious-protection legislation has been introduced in Ohio, Mississippi, Idaho, South Dakota, Tennessee and Oklahoma, but Arizona's plan is the only one that has been passed by a state legislature. The efforts are stalled in Idaho, Ohio and Kansas.
The push in Arizona comes as an increasing number of conservative states grapple with ways to counter the growing legality of gay marriage. Arizona's voters approved a ban on gay marriage as a state constitutional amendment in 2008. It is one of 29 states with such constitutional prohibitions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Federal judges have recently struck down those bans in Utah, Oklahoma and Virginia, but those decisions are under appeal.
source
Re: Don't be Gay in Arizona
She was smart enough to realize that this was going to massacre Arizona's economy.
"Hang on while I log in to the James Webb telescope to search the known universe for who the fuck asked you." -- James Fell
Re: Don't be Gay in Arizona
But she's in a state that loves mean more than money:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post ... -boycotts/
yrs,
rubato
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post ... -boycotts/
"Every nation has its hindmost part."".... If men were actuated by self-interest, which they are not - except in the case of a few saints - the whole human race would cooperate. There would be no more wars, no more armies, no more navies, no more atom bombs. There would not be armies of propagandists employed in poisoning the minds of Nation A against Nation B, and reciprocally of Nation B against Nation A. There would not be armies of officials at frontiers to prevent the entry of foreign books and foreign ideas, however excellent in themselves. There would not be customs barriers to ensure the existence of many small enterprises where one big enterprise would be more economic. All this would happen very quickly if men desired their own happiness as ardently as they desired the misery of their neighbours. But, you will tell me, what is the use of these utopian dreams ? Moralists will see to it that we do not become wholly selfish, and until we do the millenium will be impossible.
I do not wish to seem to end upon a note of cynicism. I do not deny that there are better things than selfishness, and that some people achieve these things. I maintain, however, on the one hand, that there are few occasions upon which large bodies of men, such as politics is concerned with, can rise above selfishness, while, on the other hand, there are a very great many circumstances in which populations will fall below selfishness, if selfishness is interpreted as enlightened self-interest. ... "
Bertrand Russell
yrs,
rubato
Re: Don't be Gay in Arizona
It does seem to be a state that courts negative attention, doesn't it? The MLK Day thing, the "let's target brown people for public harassment by police" law, and now this.
"Hang on while I log in to the James Webb telescope to search the known universe for who the fuck asked you." -- James Fell
-
Sue U
- Posts: 9143
- Joined: Thu Apr 15, 2010 4:59 pm
- Location: Eastern Megalopolis, North America (Midtown)
Re: Don't be Gay in Arizona
You gotta work hard to stay ahead of Florida and Texas in the race to the bottom.
GAH!