Jan Brewer's Staff Helped Write Anti-LGBT Bill She Vetoed

In an interesting turn of events it turns out that Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's staff worked with the anti-gay Center for Arizona Policy as early as January of this year to craft the language of SB 1062 which brought down a firestorm on Arizona and the Arizona GOP.  As noted before, like The Family Foundation here in Virginia, the Center for Arizona Policy is a ultra far right group that pushes a Christofascist agenda, is vehemently anti-gay and welds great power over the Republican Party in Arizona.  As the Arizona Daily Star reports, the version of SB 1062 which was passed by the GOP controlled Arizona legislature had been signed off on by Brewer's office. The obvious question becomes one of why Brewer's office did not kill the bill from the offset given its extreme silence to discriminate?  Here are some story highlights:

Top aides to Gov. Jan Brewer sought and got proponents of a “religious liberty” bill to make changes to SB 1062 more than a month before she vetoed the measure.

Documents obtained by Capitol Media Services show gubernatorial counsel Joe Sciarrotta and adviser Michael Hunter met with staffers from the Center for Arizona Policy as early as January about the legislation. The documents, mainly email exchanges before and after meetings, show the alterations made in the legislation at the behest of the Brewer advisers.

CAP President Cathi Herrod said her organization made every change sought by the administration to her proposal to expand the existing state Religious Freedom Restoration Act. She said that includes deleting phrases that concerned the governor’s staff and adding provisions designed to narrow who could legally deny services to someone based on a claim of religious freedom.

“But the intent of the meetings, the purpose of the meetings, was to thoroughly vet the language, address their concerns, and make changes in the language pursuant to their concerns,” Herrod said. She said her organization addressed every concern raised by Hunter and Sciarrotta with the idea that this year’s version would not meet the same fate as a similar bill Brewer vetoed last year.
What led to this year’s veto, Herrod insisted, had nothing to do with the wording of SB 1062.

“But the intent of the meetings, the purpose of the meetings, was to thoroughly vet the language, address their concerns, and make changes in the language pursuant to their concerns,” Herrod said. She said her organization addressed every concern raised by Hunter and Sciarrotta with the idea that this year’s version would not meet the same fate as a similar bill Brewer vetoed last year.

What led to this year’s veto, Herrod insisted, had nothing to do with the wording of SB 1062.

I beg to differ with Ms. Herrod.  The veto had EVERYTHING to do with the wording of SB 1062 which would have given Christofascist a wide license to discriminate against gays - and everyone else that they hate and about whom they could  cite a Bible passage to justify their bigotry.