Mississippi has a shiny new “right to discriminate” law that could allow businesses to turn away gay customers, single women, buddhists, pretty much anyone they don’t agree with.
The Advocate reports:
Mississippi Republican governor Phil Bryant today signed a bill into a law that will allow business and individuals to deny service to anyone in the interest of religious liberty, according to ThinkProgress. The legislation, known as Senate Bill 2681, the Mississippi Religious Freedom Restoration Act, would allow businesses and individuals to deny services to anyone, if serving that person or organization would “substantially burden” the individual’s “religious exercise.” It also adds the words “In God We Trust” to the official state seal. It received overwhelming support in the GOP-controlled legislature.
Some arm-twisting was involved.
Towleroad.com reports:
The bill passed, and should any GOP representatives have been on the fence about the issue, Jimmy Porter, executive director of the lobbying arm of Mississippi’s Southern Baptist convention, the Christian Action Commission, was sure to set them straight, promising a “political calamity” should any of them vote against Jesus.
Said Porter in part, “The fact is that one’s position on this piece of legislation can be made public whether a vote is taken or not. The leadership of the House will take a lot of heat for its failure if that is the case but it will be undeserved. The Christian Action Commission will work diligently to ensure the blame will be laid at the feet of these 20 alleged Republicans [against the bill]. Approximately 60,000 Baptist households will read about it and know the truth. Add to that Pentecostal households, members of the Tea Party, followers of American Family Association, the Liberty Council and the Family Research Council, etc., and you begin to see the widespread interest in this bill.”
Where’s Matt Barber with his “long knives” when you need him?
Find more articles and gay wedding resources in Mississippi.
The two plaintiffs in the Proposition 8 gay marriage case reportedly received numerous threatening phone calls during the trial last year.
