Friday, February 21, 2014

Jon Stewart on the "No Cake for Gays" Bill

Posted By on Fri, Feb 21, 2014 at 2:30 PM

Arizona once again makes The Daily Show as a punchline for a segment about how even Kansas rejected the anti-gay legislation that passed the AZ Legislature yesterday.

Meanwhile, Mother Jones looks at how similar bills are cropping up in state legislatures across America:

Republicans lawmakers and a network of conservative religious groups has been pushing similar bills in other states, essentially forging a national campaign that, critics say, would legalize discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Republicans in Idaho, Oregon, South Dakota, and Tennessee recently introduced provisions that mimic the Kansas legislation. And Arizona, Hawaii, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Mississippi have introduced broader "religious freedom" bills with a unique provision that would also allow people to deny services or employment to LGBT Americans, legal experts say.

"This is a concerted campaign that the religious Right has been hinting at for a couple of years now," says Evan Hurst, associate director of Truth Wins Out, a Chicago-based nonprofit that promotes gay rights. "The fact that they're doing it Jim Crow-style is remarkable, considering the fact that one would think the GOP would like to be electable among people under 50 sometime in the near future."

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