Arizona has had its share of bad political publicity. Whether it’s our love of guns or our crazy sheriffs rounding up Mexicans or our failure to join in honoring Martin Luther King Jr. with a holiday to mark what he accomplished in America, sometimes the crazy unfortunately wins out.
This week, Arizona has been at the center of another row, this time over a bill passed last week by Republicans in the state legislature which effectively underlines the legality of discriminating against gay people on the grounds of religious freedom. If a wedding photographer’s religious rights would be “substantially burdened” by having to photograph a gay wedding, for example, the law underlines the pre-existing legality of refusing to do it. Make sense?
Now American Airlines, AT&T, Delta Airlines, Intel, Marriott, PetSmart, Yelp, Apple, the SuperBowl host committee and the Arizona Cardinals, Mitt Romney and both of Arizona’s U.S. senators are among those calling for Governor Jan Brewer to veto the bill rather than allow it to pass into law. Cue lots of angry people vowing to boycott Arizona or take their business elsewhere, along with lots of Arizonans posting messages on Facebook saying things like, “We’re not all dicks!”
But apparently many of my fellow libertarians are unsure why they should oppose it. Doesn’t the bill just keep the government out of telling businesses what to do? Click play to hear my reasons for opposing it (8 mins).