“Arizona lawmakers gave final approval on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014 to a bill that would allow businesses to refuse service to customers when such work would violate their religious beliefs, in a move critics describe as a license to discriminate against gays and others,” according to Reuters.
First of all, I would never try to give my money to someone who does not wish to work with me or who hates me. Nor would many others, if they had a choice and it was clear to them that they were, for example, in a store and were dealing with a salesperson or someone else who was unpleasant.
But, legislation like this in Arizona and in other states has very little to do with religion.
Legislation like this simply makes it possible for businesses to do what they did 50 years ago, when they put up signs in their windows that said, “No coloreds allowed,” or “We don’t serve coloreds.”
It’s not significantly different.
Proponents of these kinds of laws know they can’t say “We hate gay people and we don’t want to have anything to do with them,” without being viewed as Neanderthals. So they have decided to try to use religion as some kind of shield.
But please, let’s not allow them to try to tell us this has to do with religion — this has nothing to do with religion.
There are also some really astounding redefinitions in the Arizona law that make Citizens United look like child’s play. The bottom line of this Bill is that it redefines your business as your church. They’ve made these redefinitions in order to create the construct that conducting business is somehow the same thing as practicing your religion. It’s really very laughable.
Upon further reflection, though, it’s not laughable. This is a very realistic scenario if Gov. Jan Brewer signs the bill: Bill and Ray are a couple who have been partnered for 35 years and they live in Scottsdale. Bill is 68 and Ray is 65. Bill begins to suffer a heart attack. Ray calls 911 and the dispatcher sends an ambulance with EMTs to their home. The ambulance arrives and upon realizing that Bill and Ray are a couple, the two EMTs say, “Ewwww, you two are a couple of queers,” and they refuse to provide services on the grounds that doing so violates the practice of their religious beliefs. The ambulance and two EMTs leave. A short while later, Bill dies because he does not receive timely medical treatment, while Ray is on the phone trying to explain to the 911 dispatcher that he needs an ambulance and EMTs who do not discriminate against gay people on the basis of their religious beliefs.