If you pay much attention to the news, then you've probably heard a lot about "religious freedom" bills being drafted in many state legislatures. Probably one of the most talked about at the time is North Carolina's new bill which most consider to be the most anti-LGBTQ bill yet. In short, discriminating against a person based on sexual orientation or gender is now entirely legal in North Carolina. You can have them removed from your business, refuse to sell them property and refuse to hire them based on those grounds. Perhaps most upsetting is that the bill was written, voted through the house and signed by the governor of North Carolina within 24 hours.
Georgia similarly passed a "religious freedom" bill that would also basically allow free discrimination against the LGBTQ community as long as you cite religious reasons for doing so. The state is only now rethinking this decision because the NFL is threatening to hold next year's Super Bowl in a different state because of the law. So, if you know anything about the commissioner of football, Roger Goodell, then you know that's really saying something.
My own state of Utah tried to pass an anti-discrimination bill that would make things like this entirely illegal. But when I say "state" I actually mean a single state representative. State senator Stephen Urquhart from St. George, Utah, sponsored a bill that would essentially make any discriminatory acts against people of race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, anything, illegal. Then the Mormon church stepped in. Although they don't often weigh in on state political issues, they released a statement saying that they were concerned such a bill would tip the scales for the LGBTQ community in such a way that it would clash with the state's conservative values. Whatever the flying hell that's supposed to mean. Normally a church weighing in on a law is no big deal, but unfortunately, 80 percent of state representatives in Utah are Mormon and will almost always do whatever their church thinks is best. Stephen Urquhart's bill died on the table.
All of these things can be summed up in one word, hate. Even though many states who write such bills will call them "religious freedom" or "religious preservation acts," the fact of the matter is that these people still want to openly hate a certain demographic, and not just hate them, but hate them in public with the law on their side. There is no law that says you can't personally hate the LGBTQ community on your own time when you're alone (but if you do, you're a dick). You can be a hate filled monster all you want, but don't treat us like a bunch of idiots and say you're doing it in the name of religious freedom. I used to be Mormon myself and it's been a while since I went to church or read the bible, but I'm positive that at no point did Jesus say, "And if you see a queer make sure you beat the shit out of them and call them slurs!" But it's been a while so maybe that's in there somewhere.
And really, would it be so bad to provide service to a customer whose lifestyle you disagree with? I have worked many minimum wage customer service jobs where I had to deal with all sorts terrible butt-holes, probably the kind who believe in these nonsense religious freedom bills, but at no point did I try to think of a religious reason to refuse service to this walking, talking anus. No, I did my god damn job.
Plus, how would this work? How would you know if someone coming into your restaurant was homosexual or transgender? Does your hostess have to ask everyone who comes in? When you're looking for employees, does your application have boxes asking about your sexuality and gender at birth? Or can you just freely discriminate against anyone that you even suspect might fit somewhere on the LGBTQ spectrum?
Maybe those articles I linked to had the answers, but I was too disgusted to read them to the bottom. North Carolina, Georgia, Utah, your state lawmakers are monsters.
