Arizona’s religious freedom statute was modeled on a similar federal law signed by Bill Clinton with large bipartisan majorities in both houses.
http://www.rightwingnews.com/column-2/let-authority-of-hidden-law-rule-in-arizona/
It's a shame Gov. Brewer gave in to the NFL and etc.
Through all the years I have been in America, I have been told, whenever I draw attention to some examples from Canada, that Americans are not wussy pantywaist Canadians, and there's no chance of that happening here. And yet oddly enough it does happen here, in nothing flat. Here's the kind of column I was writing up north a decade ago:
So it's no surprise to find that, even though we've only had legalized "same-sex marriage" for ten minutes, and even though Paul Martin & Co. have given a lot of fine-sounding assurances on how the new arrangements will respect the deeply held beliefs of ancient religions, gays are already in court suing for the right to marry on church property. In 2003, the Knights of Columbus in Port Coquitlam accepted a booking for a wedding reception in their hall behind Our Lady of the Assumption Church. It's a fairly typical Knights of Columbus hall--crucifixes, photographs of the Pope, paintings of the Virgin Mary, et cetera. When the Knights discovered that Deborah Chymyshyn and Tracey Smith were, in fact, a lesbian couple, they cancelled the booking as politely as they could under the circumstances, returning the deposit and, on the advice of the Archdiocese, chipping in a further $600 to cover new wedding invitations and an alternative location...
Take a wild guess at how that worked out for them.
A legal decision here, a legal decision there--a religious institution can't fire a militantly gay employee, a religious school has to allow gay couples to the prom, the sterner admonitions from Leviticus can no longer be quoted in church advertising--and the ratchet effect is well underway.
As my compatriot Kathy Shaidle likes to say (until she's arrested), " More KY for that slippery slope."But don't worry - rock-ribbed Republicans like Pierce and Brewer will ensure there's no danger of any of that coming to America.
In my book Lights Out (now out on Kindle, Kobo and Nook - click above), I write:
In the early days of gay liberation, most of us assumed we were being asked to live and let live. But, throughout the western world, 'tolerance' has become remarkably intolerant, and 'diversity' demands ruthless conformity.
Live and let live? No, live and let die. As Barbara Findlay, the QC who successfully sued the Knights of Columbus, said way back in 1997:
The legal struggle for queer rights will one day be a showdown between freedom of religion versus sexual orientation.
But don't worry, you'll still have the "freedom to worship".
......
http://www.steynonline.com/6132/if-i-knew-you-were-suing-idve-baked-a-cake |
