"Clarification" Won't Cut It

Numerous big businesses across the country are condemning Indiana's anti-gay, anti-civil rights "Religious Freedom Restoration Act."  So are various Chambers of Commerce.  The Republican mayor of Indianapolis says that his state's GOP lawmakers don't realize what they've done and are not dealing with reality.  The NCAA is considering pulling future events in the state.  Wilco has cancelled an upcoming performance.  The states of Connecticut and Washington, as well as the cities of Seattle and San Francisco, have banned official government travel to Indiana.  The headline in the Indianapolis Star:  "Fix This Now!"

Clueless Republicans in the Indiana legislature are "shocked" at the uproar.  They just can't understand why everyone is angry with them.  Gov. Pence says he'll "clarify" the law, but also says he has no interest in providing any specific protections to LGBT people in Indiana.

Two points for Pence and his pinheads:

1.  If your brand-new law needs instant clarification, that's a sure sign the law is a loser.
2.  People are upset with you because, regardless of what you claim, your RFRA is driven by homophobia and is designed to give broad legal cover to anti-gay discriminatory practices.

Indiana's RFRA was pushed by conservative Christian activists rallying to the "cause" of a bakery owner who refused to make rainbow cupcakes for a gay wedding.  ("I ain't puttin' no fag frosting on a queer cupcake!"  The baker didn't really say that, but he may as well have.)

Apologists point out that 19 other states have "similar" laws, but that's not entirely true.  All the others are narrowly limited to fairly benign proceedings involving a government entity.  (e.g. a Muslim or Amish prisoner may keep his beard; a church may feed the homeless in a city park.)  Indiana's law applies across the board -- "religious freedom" is a defense for individuals, corporations, religious "societies", for anything and everything.

And even if the laws in other states were identical to Indiana's, it wouldn't make it right.  Bad law is bad law, so "one more state on the bad law bandwagon" is an awfully flimsy defense.  Bad laws should be overturned, not rationalized with examples of more bad laws.

It's become a litmus test.  Should it be legal to discriminate against gay people?  Yes or no?  What do you say?  Mike Pence won't give a straight answer.  Neither will most of the 2016 GOP presidential hopefuls.  Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and Bobby Jindal all piped up to defend Indiana's idiocy.  (Bobby Jindal -- why is he still a thing?)  Arkansas is ready to pass its own version of the Indiana law.

Poor Republicans.  Just when you thought they'd learned something, they go all troglodyte again.  They can't help themselves -- they're addicted to gay-bashing, and to all the rest of their favorite old fear-mongering, pandering tactics.

Forward is a direction with which they are unfamiliar.
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