201.3 - Update: more RFRA nonsense

Update: more RFRA nonsense

Next up, a couple of Updates for you.

First, a little follow-up on the continuing fallout over Indiana's attempt to pass its version of a RFRA, or Religious Freedom Restoration Act, more properly called a God Gave Me The Right To Be A Bigot Act, the sort that would allow "religious belief" as a defense against a claim of discriminating against LGBT folks in public accommodations.

You know, of course, as I have mentioned before, that Indiana hastily amended the bill to say it couldn't be used to justify a violation of civil rights. That isn't all that much of an improvement since there is no law in Indiana against violating the rights of LGBT folks, but still, it showed the strength of the opposition.

Bobby Jindal

Some people, however, not only don't learn from their own mistakes, they don't learn from the mistakes others. Bobby Jindal, desperate to break out of single digits of support among the mouth-breathers who make up the biggest block of voters in GOPper presidential primaries, is pushing the Louisiana legislature to adopt a God Gave Me The Right To Be A Bigot Act even worse than Indiana's: Where that one provided a potential legal defense against a claim of discrimination if a judge could be convinced the action was based on sincere religious conviction, the Louisiana bill would grant people of who claimed religious belief absolute protection against any government action.

Meanwhile, on another front, the owner of a car repair shop in Michigan announced on Facebook that he would not serve openly homosexual customers because you know, Christianity.

Many folks figured he was trying to cash in the way a pizza shop in Indiana did when the owner said they wouldn't serve a same-sex wedding and a resulting GoFundMe campaign raised over $800,000 for the family. After the predictable negative reaction to his bigoted rant, he launched a GoFundMe page with raised a total of $5 before it was shut down for hate speech.

By the way, the owner, one Brian Klawiter, said in his Facebook rant that "Homosexuality is wrong, period. If you want to argue this fact with me then I will put your vehicle together with all bolts and no nuts and you can see how that works." Now, it's true that cars will not work well with just bolts - but apparently you can run a business in Michigan with just nuts.

Finally for now, according to a new Bloomberg poll, 74% of those polled said that sexual orientation should be protected from discrimination the same way race is protected and 58% expect that same-sex marriage will be legal in all 50 states within 10 years.

Note that latter figure is not about it you approve of same-sex marriage: You could hold that same-sex couples should have the same marriage rights as any other couple but think that won't happen for some time, if ever. On the other hand, you could oppose same-sex marriage rights but feel resigned to the idea that it's going to happen anyway.

What's important is that both those poll figures point in the same direction: The culture wars on same-sex rights, at least same-sex marriage rights, are over. The right wing has lost. The only question is how long the dead-enders will try to hold out.

Sources cited in links:
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/17/bobby_jindal_presses_louisiana_gop_to_pass_religious_freedom_bill_that_would_put_indianas_to_shame/
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/louisiana-goes-broke-discrimination-bill
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/16/michigan_business_owner_refuses_to_serve_gay_people_because_you_cant_put_a_car_together_with_all_bolts_and_no_nuts/
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/17/this_man_knows_as_much_about_jesus_as_i_do_about_fixing_cars_homophobic_repair_shop_gets_destroyed_by_yelp_reviewers/
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2015/04/16/3647710/mechanic-will-legally-refuse-service-gay-people-michigan-updates-laws/
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/17/three_quarters_of_americans_believe_sexual_orientation_should_be_a_protected_class/
http://images.businessweek.com/cms/2015-04-16/150417_bloomberg_283759_v2.pdf