It didn’t take long for the backlash to begin after Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law at a private ceremony today. The response was swift, forceful, and ongoing…. “The Indiana General Assembly and Governor have sent a dangerous and discriminatory message with this new law,” said the Human Rights Campaign’s legal director Sarah Warbelow in a statement today. “They’ve basically said, as long as your religion tells you to, it’s OK to discriminate against people despite what the law says. This new law hurts the reputation of Indiana and will have unacceptable implications for LGBT people and other minorities throughout the state. Astoundingly, Indiana representatives ignored the warnings of businesses and fair-minded Hoosiers, and now business owners and corporations are forced to consider other options when looking at states to invest in.”
It would easy to bitch and moan about the stupidity and un-Christian, mean-spirited hatefulness of Indiana’s new “Religious Freedom Restoration Act.” While it’s every bit of that, and while there was never any missing “religious freedom” to “restore,” whining won’t doing anything to change the minds of haters and zealots.
What will eventually restore fairness and equality of treatment (sooner than a court likely could) is direct action. When good and decent people push back and make it clear that they will neither tolerate nor do business with a state that considers discrimination against a minority class to be legal, there’s a good chance change will come. When you fight back by hitting people in their wallets, it tends to get their attention in ways protests and other acts of defiance can’t.
We live in an age in which equality has become, or is becoming, the norm in most places. Except for backwards, hyper-religious backwaters like Indiana (and soon Arkansas and other red states), members of minority classes such as the LGBT community are protected and guaranteed equal treatment by law. When that commonsense bit of humanity escapes the homophobic and uber-Jesus-y, it’s left to those with economic clout to push back, as is already happening in Indiana:
- Salesforce Cancels All Indiana Travel
- Cofounder of Paypal, Yelp Chairman Sees Through the Rhetoric
- NCAA Is ‘Concerned’ About Final Four
- George Takei Calls for a Boycott
- LGBT Athletic Association: Take All Sporting Events Out of Indiana
- Gay Football Fan Wants the Big 10 Championship Out of Indianapolis
No one person or group will be able to convince Indiana officials that RFRA is anything but a huge, epic mistake that only reflects poorly on the Hoosier State. With the combined resolves and efforts of a number of individuals, groups, and businesses, Indiana can be taught that hatred and discrimination come with a significant cost. When businesses, conventions, and sporting events begin pulling out of Indiana and taking their money (and with it jobs and tax revenue) with them, state government will be forced to face the reality that legalizing hatred and homophobia comes with a significant cost. Hypocrisy shouldn’t be allowed to be purchased cheaply.
If I had any business interest in (or any desire to go to) Indiana, I’d be seriously rethinking the idea of spending my money there. Why would I reward a state that’s legalized discrimination? If this sort of thing had been passed 50-60 and been directed at Blacks instead of the LGBT community, the outrage and resistance would have been significant. I’m not certain why the reaction should be any different this time around. Legalized discrimination against any minority class for any reason- religious or otherwise- is wrong and should be resisted, because when one American is oppressed, ALL are oppressed.
Those who claim that RFRA is about “restoring religious freedom” should be ashamed…which presumes they actually possess the capacity to understand and/or feel shame. That “religious freedom” has been conflated by radical Right-wing Christians with the “right” to hate and discriminate against those whose lifestyle and or sexuality you abhor is bad enough. That this “freedom” has been made the law of the state of Indiana should be considered an affront to every honest and decent American who understands what religious freedom means and what Christianity stands for.
The people of Indiana should be ashamed at what’s being done in their name. If they’re not, businesses, conventions, and sporting events should go elsewhere- because hatred and discrimination shouldn’t be rewarded.
