Arizona Legislators Try Again To Legalize Bigotry

There was a time in this country when signs like the one to the left were commonplace, even in many states outside of the Deep South. It was a blatant bigotry, and fortunately it was finally outlawed across the country by the Civil Rights Act.

But bigots are a persistent lot, and they feel the need to have some group to discriminate against, and this is particularly true of Arizona fundamentalist Republicans. The Republican-dominated government in that state has already passed a law discriminating against Hispanics -- the infamous SB-1070. Most of that law was declared unconstitutional, but that hasn't stopped the GOP legislators from trying to legalize bigotry in their state (to satisfy the teabagger fundamentalist bigots in their party base). Only this time, they shifted their focus from Hispanics to the LGBT community -- and they tried to cover that bigotry with religion in an attempt to survive any court challenge.

This time the bill is SB-1062, and it gives "any individual, association, partnership, corporation, church, religious assembly or institution, or other business organization" the right to refuse to serve any customer on religious grounds. The law is aimed at lesbians and gays, and would protect businesses that refuse to serve the LGBT community a legal defense if they are sued for denying that service. The new bill would protect the business owners from being sued (even by the government) as long as they could establish the following:

1. That the person's action or refusal to act is motivated by a religious belief.
2. That the person's religious belief is sincerely held.
3. That the state action substantially burdens the exercise of the person's religious beliefs.

In short, this bill is an attempt to give bigots a way to get around anti-discrimination laws by giving them the right to claim such laws violate their right to freedom of religion -- the idea being that having to serve everyone would violate some of the person's religious principles.

The bill is supposedly aimed at letting businesses refuse service to the LGBT community, and that is the way it is being reported by the media. But as it is written, the bill could open the door to other kinds of discrimination. I have read the bill (and you can do so at this link), and it does not restrict itself to businesses wishing to deny service to the LGBT community.

The bill would undoubtably be used to let businesses discriminate against the LGBT community (and that by itself would be wrong), but it also would let businesses use religion as an excuse for other kinds of discrimination. It is possible that signs like the one above would again appear in our communities (since racism is still a problem in this country, along with many other kinds of bigotry).

It hasn't been very long at all in this country since people tried to use religion as an excuse to refuse service to Blacks (or other racial and ethnic minorities). Once the right to discriminate against the LGBT community has been established by this new bill, who is to say it won't be used by bigots to cover other kinds of bigotry. After all, it's not hard to find a biblical verse to justify nearly anything.

This is a bad bill, and it should never become law -- and if it does it should be declared unconstitutional by federal courts. The United States is based on the principle of equality under the law -- and writing discrimination into the legal code (even on a state level) is anti-democratic and anti-American.

I support the First Amendment right of freedom of religion (which includes the right to be free from religion). But anti-discrimination laws do not violate anyone's right to freely follow their religion. They can still believe, worship, and live as they please while not discriminating against anyone in a commercial business setting. Bigotry is just wrong -- even when it comes wrapped in a Bible (or Koran, or any other religious text).