Thursday, April 7, 2016
Really Mississippi?
Mississippi Governor Signs Sweeping Anti-LGBT Bill Into Law
"This is probably the worst religious freedom bill to date,” Ben Needham, director of Project One America, an LGBT advocacy project in the Deep South run by the Human Rights Campaign, told BuzzFeed News. Needham and other critics have argued the legislation explicitly allows the denial of services, goods, wedding products, medical treatment, housing, and employment to LGBT people."
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"U.S. companies took to social media on Wednesday to denounce new laws enacted by southern states that target the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.
Companies like International Business Machines Corp and Herbalife International Inc used Twitter to criticize a North Carolina measure targeting transgender bathrooms and a Mississippi 'religious freedom' law allowing people to deny wedding services to gay couples.
The tweets illustrate how diversity-minded corporations are using their clout as major employers in Republican-controlled states to wield influence against measures they consider LGBT discrimination."
Leave it to the people with "deeply held religious beliefs" to stick it to minorities. Their "deeply held religious beliefs" seems to be exactly the opposite of what Jesus preached.
This bill has absolutely nothing to do with religious freedom and everything to do with discriminating against those who are not like these nuts.
Maybe that is one of the reasons Mississippi is last in everything. I haven't seen any of companies who are protesting this law say the will no longer sell into the state.
Why is it we need a law to tell people how to conduct business. If they turn down business for any reason that is their loss and a stupid business decision.
While I am a son of the South, I am constantly embarrassed by the low, vile and disgusting behavior of so many of my fellow Southerners. How can such a beautiful part of the country house such ugly, hate-filled morons?
Love the video, btw! It's perfect.
skudrunner: "Why is it we need a law to tell people how to conduct business."
History shows us that, in fact, the South had laws that did exactly that -- it told businesses that they could not serve African-Americans in the same place where they served white Americans, and the laws told institutions, like hospitals, that African-American doctors couldn't practice there nor could African-Americans be treated in those institutions. The North had its problems with racism, but it wasn't codified into law -- Jim Crow laws. So our history is full of laws that tell people and businesses who they cannot do business with.
It's American as apple pie.
The newest people to discriminate against are the LGBT community. Since the SCOTUS ruled in favor of marriage equality last year, state legislatures in certain states have taken it upon themselves to undermine that ruling through passing "religious protection" laws. It's spiteful b.s. and everyone knows it. These state laws are nothing more than state sanctioned discrimination against a minority. I'm pretty sure there are hundreds of "sinners" whom these deeply religious people serve every day of the year but don't know that they do.
How many adulterers or fornicators show up at hotels and motels for a tryst? Do the businesses ask to see their marriage licenses before they rent them a room? Serve them a romantic dinner? Bake them a cake for a birthday party? Before they send them flowers? Before they treat them for a medical condition? Isn't the Bible pretty clear on adulterers and fornicators? How about people who've had abortions? Do businesses ask their customers if they've had one before serving them? For surely THAT would be against their "deeply held religious beliefs" -- to do business with people who support or who have had abortions.
Unless these states require people with deeply held religious beliefs to ask ALL their customers and clients about what religious laws they may be breaking, then states like Mississippi and North Carolina are not fooling anyone about protecting people with "deeply held religious beliefs." What is obvious is that those states are protecting deeply held bigotry.
BlueBull, I've had the pleasure to visit many southeastern and deep south states, and I know many people in those beautiful states do not share this state sanctioned bigotry.
APP and RN USA, yes, it's obvious to rational people what's really behind these nasty laws.
It's not all bad, Shaw.
Georgia vetoed a similar bill.
It my be cold comfort that the decision seems to be forced by economic threats from companies like Disney and not from civil rights concern but for whatever reasons, private corporations have been instrumental throughout the gay rights movement.
I'll bet that North Carolina comes to regret this legislation which comes in reaction to Charlotte passing a gay rights bill. Watch for more N.C. moderates voting D rather than supporting the hate.
@skud -- Why is it we need a law to tell people how to conduct business.
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We need a law to block discrimination.
Years ago, many adherants to the Christian faith did not support women voting, or holding leadership positions in the church. Based on a faith position. They also supported slavery, Jim Crow and numerous other laws that devalued people, were discriminatory and essentially penalized people of color.
All this after, again, in the name of a loving God, they massacred Native Americans across this country.
Now certain segments of the church, indeed, my church, want another hall pass to discriminate.
I am at a loss to understand how a religion, any religion, earns the right to be part of a discussion when they take stances like this.
The corporate backlash against Mississippi’s new anti-LGBT law escalated on Wednesday when several corporations sent a letter calling on the state’s Republican leaders to repeal it, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reported.
The letter, which was released by the Human Rights Campaign, was signed by executives representing companies ranging from Whole Foods Market to Levi Strauss & Co. and PepsiCo.
Dave, I should have made it clear that the Christians I personally know and care about do NOT support what's being done in Mississippi and North Carolina.
Yes, Ducky, these states will drop their deeply held bigotry as soon as it affects their pocketbooks.
I know Libertarians who ascribe to the idea that a business should be able to decide who it wants to serve and who it doesn't. The question is: Is that the sort of country we want? Again? We've been there and done that since the Puritans repealed the Religious Tolerance Act in Maryland.
This has little if anything to do with religion. It has everything to do with bigotry. You can pass all the laws you want but you cannot change a deep held beliefs.
Do we really need a law for every social ill? Can you pass a law to end hatred, doubt it.
Is the deep south behind the rest of the country. Yes in many instances because of the deep seated bigotry from decades ago. The North were the progressive republicans and the South were the deep seated bigoted democrats. I know Shaw, they were really not democrats just because they were democrats. You can't rewrite history just so you don't have to acknowledge it just like you can't pass laws to change personal ideas.
Why DO people live in Mississippi? It's not a prison colony, is it? They can leave if they want to, can't they?
The North were the progressive republicans and the South were the deep seated bigoted democrats. I know Shaw, they were really not democrats just because they were democrats. You can't rewrite history just so you don't have to acknowledge it just like you can't pass laws to change personal ideas.
Skud, do you read history? The north had progressive/liberal Republicans AND Democrats. The south had conservative/reactionary Democrats AND Republicans. Just like today, we have liberal Republicans (our own Massachusetts Republican governor is one). Liberal Republicans have been purged from the national Republican Party.
We can't pass a law to end hatred, but we can pass a law to end discrimination against minorities -- we did that in the '60s -- it was called the Civil Rights Act. It made it illegal for states to disenfranchise African-Americans. That didn't end people's hatred of an entire race, but it did make it illegal to deprive them of their Constitutional rights.
Maybe you just don't get how our system of laws works.
You're correct, though, conservative Democrats were responsible for the Jim Crow laws and those conservative Democrats left the Democratic Party forever after the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act were passed by LBJ, and they pledged their allegiance to the Republican Party ever since the Democrats ensured African-Americans their civil rights. The southern Democrats became southern Republicans.
Skudrunner - well, if you value our Constitution then yes, we can pass laws to counter social ills. After all, as Madison called it, the "tyranny of the majority" was the reason for the protections afforded in the Constitution and the possibility of adding and amending new ones as the times called for. Without those protections written into our laws, what we are left with is Ochlocracy or mob rule. That also, seems to be what Donald Drumpf is attempting to achieve.
Our system is often far too slow and very far too timid in protecting the 'minority', but it does usually get there. I see this as the South's last gasp of bigotry and ignorance and that, this too, will fail as it has every other time they've attempted to codify bigotry and persecution of others.
@ skud - " Can you pass a law to end hatred, doubt it."
Laws cannot, and do not, end a behavior. But then laws are not passed to end a behavior. Laws are passed to outlaw a behavior, and prescribe a punishment for doing that behavior.
BlueBull, you are right. The system, which is us, is too slow and the south will eventually get there. I do wonder however if it will take another 20 years or longer. There is still a lot of entrenched bigotry south of the Mason Dixon Line.
I love it when people inform me that "you can't pass a law to change behavior.: Right. So let's not have any laws against violent people who commit assault and battery on others, or people who can't control criminal behavior like stealing, pedophilia. In fact, why have laws at all when we know people are going to break them?
Timothy Egan, NYTimes:
"Nearly all the states with the highest percentage of minimum wage workers — full-time jobholders making $290 a week, before taxes — are in the South. These are also the same states that refuse to expand Medicaid to allow the working poor to get health care. And it’s in the same cradle of the old Confederacy where discriminatory bills are rising. Don’t blame the cities; from Birmingham to Charlotte, people are trying to open doors to higher wages and tolerance of gays, only to be rebuffed at the state level.
Essentially, this Republican-controlled block has decided that it’s better to be poor, sick and bigoted than prosperous, healthy and open-minded. And its defense is precisely that: The region is too economically distressed and socially backward to accept progress, so why change? Discrimination, as they see it, is just another term for religious freedom."
Yes RN FAR too much entrenched bigotry and an odd pride in being and staying uneducated. I've never understood that, but I see it nearly daily.
There is a difference between change and end.
Speaking of minimum wages and conservatives, can anyone explain to me why these guys who hate big government, and extol the virtues of government at the local level, because it is closer to the people, support the new wage law in Alabama?
The one passed by the GOP dominated legislature that makes it illegal for s city to pass their own law regarding wages. You know, the one signed by the family values governor who dumped his wife of 50 years for a younger model who he "employs" in the statehouse.
@skud -- Can you pass a law to end hatred, doubt it.
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Ain't passing a law to end hatred. Trying to end discrimination.
"A Statement from Bruce Springsteen on North Carolina
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN·FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2016
As you, my fans, know I’m scheduled to play in Greensboro, North Carolina this Sunday. As we also know, North Carolina has just passed HB2, which the media are referring to as the “bathroom” law. HB2 — known officially as the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act — dictates which bathrooms transgender people are permitted to use. Just as important, the law also attacks the rights of LGBT citizens to sue when their human rights are violated in the workplace. No other group of North Carolinians faces such a burden. To my mind, it’s an attempt by people who cannot stand the progress our country has made in recognizing the human rights of all of our citizens to overturn that progress. Right now, there are many groups, businesses, and individuals in North Carolina working to oppose and overcome these negative developments. Taking all of this into account, I feel that this is a time for me and the band to show solidarity for those freedom fighters. As a result, and with deepest apologies to our dedicated fans in Greensboro, we have canceled our show scheduled for Sunday, April 10th. Some things are more important than a rock show and this fight against prejudice and bigotry — which is happening as I write — is one of them. It is the strongest means I have for raising my voice in opposition to those who continue to push us backwards instead of forwards.
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s Sunday April 10th show is canceled. Tickets will be refunded at point of purchase."
Sometimes bigger is better. Springsteen and the E Street Band chose to travel the high road.
Really Mississippi?
Mississippi Interracial Couple Evicted For Being In An Interracial Marriage
The majority leader of the U.S. Senate, Mitch McConnell, would not be allowed in certain Christian businesses in Mississippi because he's in an interracial marriage with Elaine Chao, the first Asian-American woman to serve in a president's cabinet (GWB) . The question is: shouldn't Mississippi be aligned with some ultra-religious Middle East country rather than being part of the United States of America? How far will these people take their phony "religious" beliefs before sensible people see them for what they really are?
Christian fundamentalists and Islamic extremists share far more ideology with each other than any sane person should be comfortable with. Both are anti-choice, anti-women, anti-civil rights for gays and other minorities, both want theocracy to rule everyone and both are convinced that they and only they are the spokespeople for God.
Truly, they have more in common with each other than they ever will with the average person here or there. Both of them are a danger to society at large and neither should be allowed to limit the freedoms of the rest of us.
Guess I should cancel that vacation I was contemplating in Mississippi...
Wouldn't want to get evicted from my hotel room for "shackin"...
you gotta laugh at the hysterics on the religious right that point out the awful Muslim sharia laws that keep women second class citizens but they completely ignore our "christian" laws that make it legal to discriminate against a legally married couple because one of them has a different color skin. Bluebull is right these type of christian fundamentalists and islamic fundamentalists are essentially the same because they use god to justify their bigotry. theyre so afraid of sharia law taking over this country but have nothing to say about what their type of christianity is already doing.
When I'm president the Christians will have power. So much power. Christians will get sick of having so much power. I guarantee it. Everyone will HAVE to say Merry Christmas. I guarantee that. And it's gonna be great.
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