Political foo: Here we go again
Mar. 24th, 2015 08:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alpharaposaSo, today on Twitter I saw a few people talking about GenCon sending out a letter to Gov Pence of Indiana about Indiana SB 101. So, I looked up the text of the bill. I read it, grumbled a bit to my husband about it not saying anything unusual, and then sent a link to some of the people exclaiming on Twitter.
Then one of my in-laws posted about it on Facebook. Pasted the link to the text of the bill in the comments. Then one of my highschool friends shared a post by George Takei threatening to never attend an event in Indiana if the bill passes.
Okay, so this escalated quickly, didn't it?
Here's a link to the bill:
https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2015/bills/senate/101
Take some time to read it, won't you? What is says is that the government of Indiana can't force anybody to violate their religious beliefs unless there is a clear compelling interest in doing so. If there is such an interest, the state must use the least burdensome method available to it to resolve the issue. It also provides a means of redress if the state does overstep its bounds.
This is not a law saying that people can throw gays out of their establishment whenever they feel like it.
19 other states already have laws like this. There is a federal law that states the same thing for those items under Federal jurisdiction. This is not some bright, hard, new line being crossed. Instead, it says that sometimes, what people believe is important enough that it needs to be respected. Accommodations will be found. Compromises may have to be made, so that people don't end up losing their livelihoods in the pursuit of their beliefs. Worst comes to worst, there will be lawsuits establishing just how burdensome is too burdensome.
The groups whipping up a panic over this law want to do to Indiana and GenCon what they did to Mozilla when they got the company to fire one of its own founders. They want to enforce their own dogma. Absolute purity. No accommodation. GenCon has a contract with Indianapolis through 2020. They're not leaving soon. No, the letter just says that if Indiana turns out to not be popular enough to sustain business, they'll have to go elsewhere. The people threatening that popularity? Guess who. It's not the folks who are worried about losing their businesses over a wedding cake.
Indianapolis Star article:
http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2015/03/23/indiana-house-oks-controversial-religious-freedom-bill/70336706/
Then one of my in-laws posted about it on Facebook. Pasted the link to the text of the bill in the comments. Then one of my highschool friends shared a post by George Takei threatening to never attend an event in Indiana if the bill passes.
Okay, so this escalated quickly, didn't it?
Here's a link to the bill:
https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2015/bills/senate/101
Take some time to read it, won't you? What is says is that the government of Indiana can't force anybody to violate their religious beliefs unless there is a clear compelling interest in doing so. If there is such an interest, the state must use the least burdensome method available to it to resolve the issue. It also provides a means of redress if the state does overstep its bounds.
This is not a law saying that people can throw gays out of their establishment whenever they feel like it.
19 other states already have laws like this. There is a federal law that states the same thing for those items under Federal jurisdiction. This is not some bright, hard, new line being crossed. Instead, it says that sometimes, what people believe is important enough that it needs to be respected. Accommodations will be found. Compromises may have to be made, so that people don't end up losing their livelihoods in the pursuit of their beliefs. Worst comes to worst, there will be lawsuits establishing just how burdensome is too burdensome.
The groups whipping up a panic over this law want to do to Indiana and GenCon what they did to Mozilla when they got the company to fire one of its own founders. They want to enforce their own dogma. Absolute purity. No accommodation. GenCon has a contract with Indianapolis through 2020. They're not leaving soon. No, the letter just says that if Indiana turns out to not be popular enough to sustain business, they'll have to go elsewhere. The people threatening that popularity? Guess who. It's not the folks who are worried about losing their businesses over a wedding cake.
Indianapolis Star article:
http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2015/03/23/indiana-house-oks-controversial-religious-freedom-bill/70336706/
