[C]onsider the bill itself. When passed, the new law will allow any individual, group, or private business to refuse to serve gay couples if “it would be contrary to their sincerely held religious beliefs.” Private employers can continue to fire gay employees on account of their sexuality. Stores may deny gay couples goods and services because they are gay. Hotels can eject gay couples or deny them entry in the first place. Businesses that provide public accommodations—movie theaters, restaurants—can turn away gay couples at the door. And if a gay couple sues for discrimination, they won’t just lose; they’ll be forced to pay their opponent’s attorney’s fees….
Imagine if you will a place where a person can be legally marginalized simply because of whom and how they love. Imagine that the full force and power of the state has been repurposed in order to make treating that person like a second-class citizen perfectly legal and acceptable.
Truth be told, you don’t have to imagine anything…because that place really exists here in the land of opportunity and “All men are created equal.” It’s called Kansas, and the Godly State is hell-bent on turning homosexuals into legally-defined second-class citizens. The same Conservatives who demand small government evidently have no problem with using that same govern to promote their social agenda and enforce their hatred and prejudice.
Governor Sam Brownback promised to turn Kansas into a Conservative Paradise. I suspect that never in his wildest dreams did he imagine that he would be as wildly successful as he’s been. Not that it’s anything to be proud of.
How bad is it? Republicans in the Kansas Legislature have passed legislation making anti-gay discrimination in virtually all forms legal. It’s about as close as they could come to legalizing the extermination of gays and lesbians. Those who view equal rights as discriminating against good, God-fearing heterosexuals are undoubtedly very happy with Kansas’ new law. It may not be as bad as Russia’s anti-gay law…but it’s not far off.
How repressive is Kansas’ anti-gay law? Well, if you’re gay, you have no legal protections and even fewer rights.
Individual, groups, or private businesses can refuse to provide goods and/or services if doing so “would be contrary to their sincerely held religious beliefs.”
Employers can fire an individual for no other reason than that they’re gay.
Hotels can kick gay couples out or refuse to provide lodging.
Movie theaters and restaurants can bar entry to gay couples.
Of course, a gay couple could sue claiming discrimination, but not only is there no way they would prevail in court, they’d be saddled with the indignity of being forced to pay their opponent’s court costs. If this sounds familiar, it should- China used to bill the families of the executed for the bullets used to kill them.
A police office could refuse to assist a gay couple if doing so runs counter to his or her religious beliefs.
I could go on, but think about that last one for a moment. A police office comes across a gay couple, one of whom’s been stabbed and’s bleeding profusely. The officer would be within his or her rights to refuse to provide assistance because they consider homosexuality an abomination against God and therefore worthy only of death. They could refuse to call for an ambulance or provide any other potentially life-saving assistance…and there’d be no way to hold them culpable for their inaction.
All of the above and more are within the law in the guise of “religious liberty.”
It gets worse. The law’s advocates claim that it applies only to gay couples—but there’s no clear limiting principle in the text of the bill that would keep it from applying to gay individuals as well. A catch-all clause allows businesses and bureaucrats to discriminate against gay people so long as this discrimination is somehow “related to, or related to the celebration of, any marriage, domestic partnership, civil union or similar arrangement.” (Emphases mine.) This subtle loophole is really just a blank check to discriminate: As long as an individual believes that his service is somehow linked to a gay union of any form, he can legally refuse his services. And since anyone who denies gays service is completely shielded from any charges, no one will ever have to prove that their particular form of discrimination fell within the four corners of the law.
I’m not a Constitutional scholar, but it’s hard to believe that this law could possible pass a court test. It’s almost surreal; a state legislature has just made it legal to do virtually everything short of executing gays and lesbians. The law is so broadly written that virtually any form of discrimination has been provided the patina of legality. While many are (understandably and justifiably) focused on Russia’s brutally inhuman anti-gay law, we have something very similar occurring in Kansas. What makes it worse is that the new law has received very little attention from the Mainstream Media.
Homophobes are nothing if not savvy, and while the judiciary dukes out the gay marriage issue, the shrewdest bigots have already moved on to the next battle. There might still be time to prevent such discrimination in bluer states. But in dark-red places like Kansas, anti-gay segregation is the new reality.
The Nazis forced homosexuals to wear pink triangles, and thousands were exterminated. Russia’s new law has provided legal cover for those who abduct, beat, and torture homosexuals, because many in the Russian government consider gays and lesbians to be subhuman. Kansas has stopped just short of such violence and repression, though I suspect there are some who’d be happy to see gays and lesbians executed for their sinful abomination.
Even in America, hatred and bigotry can travel halfway around the world before love and tolerance drag themselves out of bed….
