Anti-gay bigots are doing the unthinkable: Reframing their stand as anti-oppression

Wingnuts’ most audacious lie yet: Quietly pretending their views are liberal!

Aware they've lost the debate, anti-gay bigots are doing the unthinkable: Reframing their stand as anti-oppression

ELIAS ISQUITH

Following the state Senate’s lead, Republicans in Arizona’s House of Representatives voted on Thursday in favor of a new bill to turn their state’s LGBT residents into second-class citizens. According to Arizona Republicans and their supporters throughout the country, they did this to protect “religious liberty” (a stark reminder that terrible decisions are often made in the name of an abstract good). Yet in spite of its lofty goal, in the real world, the bill, like bills put forward in Kansas, Idaho, Oklahoma, Hawaii and Mississippi, will become a weapon of exclusion and an impediment to the further integration of LGBT Americans into everyday life in America. A testament to ours being a time of universally recognized change on the issue of gay rights, social conservatives are mounting their most desperate assault on LGBT people since DOMA while utilizing the liberal’s language of inherent dignity and fundamental rights.

The bills differ somewhat in their particulars, but the basic thrust of each piece of legislation is the same: In the name of religious liberty, these laws would allow folks in both the private and the public spheres to refuse services to anyone whose behavior — or assumed behavior — they considered sinful. Own a restaurant but don’t want any LGBT people to use it as the location for a same-sex wedding’s after-party? Not to worry: Even if your town has anti-discrimination laws currently on the books, you can avoid getting sued by simply claiming your reasons are religious in nature. If the guy sitting at the counter looks to you like he might be gay, go ahead and tell him to hit the road. Republicans defend you when you say you’re not discriminating but rather trying to live in accordance with your faith.

Needless to say, these are odious bills, so patently designed to allow some Americans to deny the rights and dignity of others that the frequently made comparisons to Jim Crow are depressingly appropriate. And while there are some signs that even those who don’t support the rights of LGBT citizens see this kind of legislation as a bridge too far, the Arizona example shows that this kind of legislation is a frighteningly real possibility for millions of Americans. As Evan Hurst, associate director of the pro-gay rights nonprofit Truth Wins Out, told David Corn of Mother Jones, “One would think the GOP would like to be electable among people under 50 sometime in the near future” and would thus avoid supporting Jim Crow-style anti-gay legislation. But at this point, it looks like that’s an open question.

As retrograde as this kind of legislation is, however, there’s something ironically modern — even vaguely progressive — about the arguments its supporters have put forward in its defense.

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http://www.salon.com/2014/02/22/wingnuts_most_audacious_lie_yet_quietly_pretending_their_views_are_liberal/