Why am I talking about Mississippi? I have zero desire to go (I don’t really like heat and humidity to start with), but it’s still one of the states in the United States, so we should pay attention. Recently, a new law went into effect where businesses can turn customers away based on religious beliefs.
AKA, “Don’t serve the Gays.”
We’ve seen religion used before to deny service to African Americans at lunch counters. We’ve seen religion used to justify denial of service to Irish immigrants. And as a society, we moved past this. Except for the LGBT community (and immigrants, which I will remind you, unless you’re Native American, you’re ancestors were immigrants too).
When you operate a business, you work in the public sphere and have to serve the entire public, not just the portions you choose. This is why the Civil Rights Act was so important, it stopped businesses from being able to say “No blacks,” “No Irish.” Putting a sign in your store window today that says “No Italians,” or “No Women” in this day and age is abhorrent. But for the LGBT community, it’s a reality.
For some reason, the courts are allowing those with “closely held religious beliefs” to discriminate however they want. But as Rob points out, when the logical inconsistency is brought up, the laws, as well as the bigotry falls apart:
Bigots hate to be seen as bigots, they just want to hate and discriminate without being noticed. But the above graphic shows exactly the logical conclusion of their bias.
And on the other side of the coin, the President signed an Executive Order making businesses that have federal contracts required to follow non-discrimination practices in hiring.
After a brief period of lying and saying they already had that policy in place, Exxon Mobile is finally being forced to not discriminate against the LGBT community: this is after 17 straight years of denying those workers any protections.
Allegheny County has non-discrimination policies in place. But like I’ve mentioned before, Pennsylvania does not, so outside of the county, I can legally be denied employment, housing and any public accommodation (retail), simply for being gay. We’re the only state that has marriage equality without these other basic protections, and it’s nerve-wracking at times.
ENDA (in all it’s flaws and shortcomings) is stalled in the House (and no one is surprised), but until these inclusive bills are passed, we’re still living and working in a system that is inherently unequal.
All my best,
Mike
