Jeb Bush Signals Support for License-to-Discriminate Laws

Jeb Bush - pandering political whore

After hiring an openly gay media consultant, Jebbie Bush is now on a tear to totally prostitute himself to the hate-filled, modern day Pharisee set in the GOP party base.  Not only has he hired a virulently anti-gay adviser, but now he has signaled that he supports license-to-discriminate laws being pushed across the country by Christofasicts and political whores like Jebbie in the Republican Party.  One of the ironies is that some of these laws are so broad that they open the door to all kinds of discrimination - and, in theory, could be used to discriminate against the "godly folk" themselves.  A piece in Salon looks at Jebbie Bush's shameless self-prostitution.  Here are highlights:

Courting conservatives in Atlanta on Thursday, likely GOP presidential contender Jeb Bush threw his support behind efforts to allow businesses and individuals to refuse services to gay people on religious grounds, arguing that while couples in “long-term committed relationships” deserve respect, others “have a right” to discriminate.

Though Bush did not explicitly endorse a proposed measure in the Georgia legislature that would allow such discrimination, he expressed sympathy for the movement to sanction religiously-based discrimination.

“I don’t know about the law, but religious freedom is a serious issue, and it’s increasingly so, and I think people that act on their conscience shouldn’t be discriminated against, for sure,” Bush told reporters, speaking on the steps of the Georgia Statehouse. “There should be protections, and so, as it relates to marriage equality — and that may change, the Supreme Court may change that. That automatically then shifts the focus to people of conscience, and, I don’t know, have their faith make — they want to act on their faith, and may not be able to be employed for example.”

Bush reaffirmed his support for “traditional marriage” during his appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Since then, Bush has hired Jordan Sekulow, an ardent evangelical whose American Center for Law and Justice has defended the criminalization of gay sex internationally, to serve as an emissary to conservatives.

While Bush may realize that his party has all but lost its fight against marriage equality, his emphasis on “religious liberty” points to the next front in the gay rights battle. As marriage equality has taken effect throughout much of the nation, conservatives lawmakers have responded with a spate of measures aiming to protect those who would discriminate  against gay couples on religious grounds. Even if he’s not inclined to back specific proposals just yet, Bush has clearly taken note of the trend, and shows every sign that he buys the right’s religious liberty narrative.

As LGBT rights advocates note, however, that brand of discrimination contravenes the well-established precedent that businesses and individuals offering services on the public market must adhere to generally applicable non-discrimination policies. At the end of the day, license-to-discriminate legislation isn’t about recognizing religious rights. It’s about creating special ones.

Rally Against Oppressive ‘Religious Freedom’

The rallying cry and Trojan Horse of the Christofascists and far right politicians who prostitute them selves to them is "religious freedom" and now laws that claim to protect it while, in fact, granting broad licenses to discriminate.  While the chief targets of such laws are gays, the language is often so broad that any number of other laws may be ignored if one bases one's actions on "religious belief," opening the right to discriminate against blacks, Jews, and a host of other minorities.  These laws thus grant a wide array of special rights to the hate-filled, bigoted set.  A piece in Salon looks at efforts to rally against such a law under consideration in Georgia (amazingly, a similar law was just defeated in West Virginia).  Here are highlights:

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Georgians had another reason to be drinking yesterday besides the obvious one. A new bill could make Georgia one of the least LGBT-friendly states in the country and there’s less than a month left to stop it. . . . the “Georgia Religious Freedom Restoration Act” (GRFRA).

The GRFRA—also known as SB129—is headed to the Georgia House of Representatives after clearing the Senate by a wide margin and, if passed, it will become what The Daily Beast’s Jay Michaelson has called “the nation’s harshest ‘religious freedom’ law,” granting business owners unprecedented latitude to refuse service to LGBT people and potentially even impeding child abuse investigations.

The law itself makes no reference to these consequences, only citing the need to defend “persons whose religious exercise is substantially burdened by government.”  

“We know that this is about discrimination,” said Executive Director of Georgia Equality Jeff Graham at the start of the rally.

SB129 is just one of many state-level RFRA laws that have become the religious right’s reactionary response to recent same-sex marriage gains. With a Supreme Court ruling in favor of same-sex marriage expected this year, the fight over LGBT rights is quickly moving from weddings to wedding cakes—specifically to whether or not a Christian baker can refuse to make one for a same-sex couple.

The speakers at yesterday’s rally to stop SB129 seemed like an unlikely group of allies: a rabbi, a Republican, a lawyer, a Baptist. One organizer told The Daily Beast that it was “like the start of a bad joke.”  But the diverse array of speakers revealed the breadth of groups who oppose the bill while highlighting the fact that LGBT Georgians will need to make some strange bedfellows to keep it off the governor’s desk.

 While LGBT Georgians continue to write emails and flood phone lines, the fate of SB129 remains uncertain in the House. On one hand, Speaker David Ralston (R) has been skeptical of SB129 in recent comments on Georgia public television.

But Ralston’s caution has already earned him the ire of those further to his right. Erick Erickson of RedState has concluded from his comments that “Speaker of the House David Ralston does not believe Christians need their faith protected” and that Ralston is “willing to see Christians surrender their ability to live their faith outside of 11 AM to noon on Sunday.” The religious right in Georgia will be making phone calls as well.

 The hatred of others and extreme selfishness of the "godly folk" is chilling. Again I ask, when are moral and decent folk going to stop giving them - and religion in general - undeserved deference?

Is Utah's LGBT Rights Bill A Trojan Horse For Religious Right?

There has been much hoopla in certain circles over Utah's passage of a LGBT non-discrimination bill that was backed by the Mormon Church - not exactly the most gay friendly of organizations.  The law is being called a "model" for other red states and, while it contains positive measures, many fear that it is a Trojan Horse for the Christofascists due to the religious exemptions in the bill.  Yes, gays have increased rights, except when "religious belief" trumps the law.  While perhaps the exemption was needed to secure passage, the reality is that non-discrimination protections for other protected classes contain no such exemptions.  Gays in the end remain in a second class status.  A piece in The New Civil Rights Movement looks at the valid concerns.  Here are highlights:

While there is much to be happy with in the legislation, and the protections it offers to some of the most vulnerable citizens in the Beehive State, the law also contains a tiny Trojan Horse individual religious exemptions clause. 

The Utah bill is being called a “model” to be used in states around the nation, but we must be forewarned. The individual religious exemption in the law, as small and seemingly noninvasive as it is, could put the civil liberties of everyone at stake for decades to come.

Religious freedom is important, and as a principle has existed since before the writing of the U.S. Constitution. The 13 original colonies were a fractured bunch of near-theocracies, with various Christian sects dominating different colonies—to the detriment of anyone not a member of the particular sect in power locally. Thanks to the wisdom of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, the principle of religious freedom in the Constitution set in motion of the disestablishment of the state churches, and the advantages they held in the public sphere. Jefferson's famous Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which predated the Constitution and was the first such law to be enacted in the world, said one's beliefs or non-beliefs cannot “enhance, diminish, or impact” one's “civil capacity.”

But the Religious Right has launched a campaign to redefine the meaning of religious liberty, stripping away those protections and once again giving religions the power to circumscribe the rights of individual conscience. 

This coalition, led by right-wing groups such as Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly known as Alliance Defense Fund), the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, and Liberty Counsel, is systematically working the courts and state legislatures to enact religious exemptions—essentially a right of religious institutions and individuals to decide which laws they will or will not follow.

In practical terms, this could play out as a business owner invoking faith to deny service to a LGBTQ couple, or refusing to hire Jewish employees. Or a man refusing to promote women to managerial positions because he doesn't believe men should be subservient to women. We cannot allow such freedom of conscience to become a legal sanction for these and other forms of discrimination.

The bill does indeed ban workplace and housing discrimination against LGBTQ people in Utah. But buried underneath those important protections, is a small clause guaranteeing the right of individuals to express faith-based anti-LGBTQ views at work.

It’s a small exemption. Seemingly inconsequential in comparison to the benefits the new law could bring. Viewed purely as a standalone piece of legislation, SB296 does a lot more good than bad and it’s unsurprising to see so many social justice-minded people supporting it.

But the equality movement cannot survive if we view legislation through a short-term and narrow lens. To do so is to ignore the context of the long-term consequences of the Religious Right’s national agenda—which only needs to get a foot in the door to get the ball rolling.

[T]he Religious Right's goal of codifying their redefined version of religious freedom into law has taken a giant step forward. Once Pandora’s Box is opened, there’s no shutting it.

Freedom of religion was envisioned by the Founding Fathers as meaning (i) no one had to pay taxes to support an established church, (ii) no one could be forced to hold a particular set of beliefs, and (iii) individuals were free to attend the house of worship of their choice.  It was never intended to grant the right to ignore civil laws because of one's religious belief.  This is a very, very dangerous precedent.