NATIONAL BUSINESSES ARE NOT AS DENSE AS INDIANA GOV. MIKE PENCE

…Ms. Crystal O’Connor of Indiana’s "Memories Pizza"

The following is how some citizens of Indiana have interpreted the original “Freedom of Religion” law approved by Governor Pence.

I find it humorous that the first reaction to the signing of Indiana’s Freedom of Religion bill into law came from the NCAA, (Which BTW is headquartered in Indianapolis). 

 

Yep, forget how this affects all the LGBT citizens in Indiana, but let’s get upset because the NCAA President Mark Emmert said, "We are especially concerned about how this legislation could affect our student-athletes, employees and visitors at the Final Four competition.”  This was in relation to basketball’s College March Madness games this last weekend.

I also find it interesting that since the state's congress worked late into the nights to re-write the bill not allowing discrimination of gays, they still left some big holes in their final revision.  Oh, now you can’t discriminate against gays in housing or other obvious areas.  But if you are a religious pharmacist, you can still refuse to provide HIV medicine or other medications if a gay person offends you or your religion.

But I digress.  Apparently, we do find that, ”Ignorance is truly Bliss” in Indiana. 

Thanks to a pizza business owner in Walkerton, Indiana, the owners have proven that all those upset by Indiana’s new “Freedom of Religion” law were “spot-on” that the new law would be interpreted for allowing discrimination against various American citizens. 

It also proved that Governor Mike Pence was just blindly blathering on when he said, “his state's new law wasn't a license to discriminate”.

We can now thank the owners of Memories Pizza in Walkerton as an example of how some citizens of that state were going to interpret the new law.

Per Ms. Crystal O'Connor of Memories Pizza: “If a gay couple came in and wanted us to provide pizzas for their wedding, we would have to say no.  We're not discriminating against anyone, that's just our belief and anyone has the right to believe in anything.”

This person doesn’t seem to understand that refusing to provide pizzas or any service for someone's wedding, just because they're gay, is not in fact a “belief”.  It's an “action of discrimination”.

But Ms. O’Connor continued: “I do not think it's targeting gays. I don't think it's discrimination.  It's [the new law] supposed to help people that have a religious belief.”

This says that this person just announced her intent to discriminate against LGBT people because the new law allows her to do so.

Ms. O’Connor believes the new law is supposed to help people that have a religious belief?  What the law was written to do is to help anyone discriminate against gays, as was proven so deftly by Ms. O’Connor.

But then, the ignorance got even worse when Ms. O’Connor continued: “That lifestyle is something they choose. I choose to be heterosexual. They choose to be homosexual. Why should I be beat over the head to go along with something they choose?”

As with many highly religious groups, she and they tend to ignore science and the majority of psychologists and researchers.  These experts agree that being gay is not a choice, but is something that is determined at birth.

Ms. O’Connor did us all a great favor by showing why this law is so awful, even in its latest version.  It expresses the kind of mean-spirited bigotry that it was passed to enable.

Now, will the O’Connor’s and others go whining to the right-wing media about how mean the people and the main-stream media have been to them?  Oh, probably.

But in expressing their bigotry and announcing their intention to discriminate, I’m hoping it will eventually bring them to understand the error of their ways.

However, as usual, I won’t be holding my breath.

Copyright G.Ater  2015