Veto the bill, Gov. Brewer

The Arizona legislature passed SB 1062, whose author says that it does nothing more than affirm "that the religious views of all Arizonans must be respected."   It gives any business the right to refuse service to anyone if doing so would violate the business owner's or the server's religious beliefs.

They tried to sneak this through as a religious protection law.  This fools no one.   It is a blatant anti-gay law that is intended to allow those in the wedding industry to refuse their services to gay and lesbian couples.   The bill was introduced in response to an incident in New Mexico in the state supreme court allowed a gay couple to sue a photographer who refused to photograph their commitment ceremony.   In Colorado, a court ruled against a baker who refused to sell a wedding cake to a lesbian couple. The grounds, of course, is that anyone who offers services to the public is subject to anti-discrimination laws.

Arizona legislatures wanted to have a law that would protect such businesses from being sued for discrimination against gays.   This was clearly the subject of the support for the bill during the hearings.

What are these people thinking?   It's not just gay weddings.   This bill would allow restaurants to refuse to serve gay people, taxis to refuse to transport gay people, hotels to refuse accommodations, and apartments to refuse to rent to gay couples.    This bill would open the door to the past and make blatant discrimination acceptable.

There has been such an unanticipated national outcry against Arizona, even calls for the future SuperBowl to be relocated from Phoenix.   Both Arizona U. S. senators have called on Gov. Brewer to veto the bill.  Petitions are quickly being assembled.

And now, in the latest development, three state senators who voted for the law have written to the governor asking her to veto the bill.    One of this trio, the state senate president, was interviewed by Chris Hayes on MSNBC.   He says they had not seen it as discriminatory, that the passage had been rushed through, nobody realized it would cause such a backlash.

OK.   So, Gov. Brewer.   Once again it's up to you to save your state from disgrace by vetoing a bill your legislature has unwisely passed.   There's a good chance she will.  After all, she vetoed virtually the same bill when it was presented to her last year.

Ralph