Kansas house passes bill allowing denial of service to gays on basis of religion

[Cloud3514]

Does the first amendment mean nothing to this godforsaken place?

Kansas lawmakers passed a bill Tuesday that would permit businesses and government employees to deny service to same-sex couples on the basis of their religious principles. The measure passed an initial vote in the house by a significant margin, 72 votes to 42 votes. In a final vote on Wednesday, the bill succeeded 72 votes to 49 votes and will now be considered by the Republican-controlled state senate.

Read more: Kansas Bill Allowing Refusal of Service to Gay Couples Passes House | TIME.com http://nation.time.com/2014/02/11/kansas-bill-allowing-refusal-of-service-to-gay-couples-moves-forward/#ixzz2tDVTByKf

Source: http://nation.time.com/2014/02/11/kansas-bill-allowing-refusal-of-service-to-gay-couples-moves-forward/

[Katsuro]

This can't last long surely?  I mean there must be federal laws that make this illegal or something.

[Ultimate Paragon]

This is blatantly unconstitutional.  It won't last.

[mellenORL]

Kansas. We all think first of Texas or Oklahoma or Alabama, etc. when we talk about radical fundie legislation threats. However, Kansas is where bad laws like this most often get passed, both on the local and state level. The fundies have more or less quietly been taking over in Kansas for years. And yes, this law is blatantly in violation of federal law.

[ironbite]

Congrats Kansas.  You just fast tracked gay marriage equality to the Supreme Court.

Ironbite-you idiots.

[Beezlebub]

What I'm confused is, of all the sins in the bible, why is homosexuality the only one that seems to matter?

You don't hear about people protesting having to serve  Atheists, Adulterers, thieves...

[mellenORL]

Fundie sexual repression. They're a Freudian therapist's playground. Anything that is sex outside of the missionary position begetting of a child by a married hetero couple is perverted and ebul.

They get thrills thinking about how evil homosexuality is. They visualize all the souls of homosexuals in Hell, all naked and writhing in piles of filth, dominatrix demons whipping them and laughing at them. They think about it obsessively.  Then they secretly masturbate in a frenzy.

[Random Gal]

There's a similar bill in the works in South Dakota, as I mentioned before. It also comes with a provision (an unconstitutional provision, mind you) that federal protections preventing this do not apply in South Dakota. That one won't likely pass, but unfortunately this one in Kansas is probably going ahead unless some miracle happens.

Do these people really not see that this is no different from 50s-era "WHITES ONLY" businesses?

PS: The jerkass who introduced the South Dakota bill is coming to my area to hold a town hall meeting on it. The LGBT club on campus is planning to show up in force there.

[mellenORL]

O hell yeah! I hope someone gets a video with their phone, at least. Love to see and heat that bullshit.

[Random Gal]

I think the reason Kansas gets a lot of the fundie stuff is because of its position near the exact center of the United States. No international borders or port cities or anything to expose people to anyone who isn't a REAL AMURRIKAN, so they get very little opposition.

[The Right Honourable Mlle Antéchrist]

Cue masses of lolbertarians rushing in to play "Devil's Advocate" and insist that people should have the right to deny service than anyone.

[Rabbit of Caerbannog]

The part about government workers denying service based on sexual orientation will be struck down so fast it'll make their heads spin. Unfortunately until we get ENDA they can still allow private entities to deny service.

[Askold]

What I'm confused is, of all the sins in the bible, why is homosexuality the only one that seems to matter?

You don't hear about people protesting having to serve  Atheists, Adulterers, thieves...

...Anymore.

Even fundies are evolving slowly along with the society and the list of their targets of hate is slowly decreasing. Atheists or "anyone not in the same branch of MY religion" in particular have faced discrimination back in the old days. It is just that it is no longer acceptable in most civilized countries to demand that unbelievers be thrown out of your store or to go around shouting about divine retribution against people who have divorced or cheated on their wife/husband.

Also, some input from my wife: ever since the times of Rome hating homosexuality has been a christian thing. In fact it has been one unifying subject of hate for christians, most Romans were tolerant of homosexuality and it was fashionable so by opposition to homosexuality was something that would help the "us vs them" mentality.

Or as I see it: Basically, christians were hipsters who hated a popular fashionable trend to make themselves feel "edgy."

[Vypernight]

http://fox4kc.com/2014/02/13/kansas-house-passes-bill-allowing-refusal-of-service-to-same-sex-couples/

Of course, Fox News is praising this bill as supporting people's freedom of religion.  They're also optimisitic that it'll pass.  Of course, these are the same people who blasted Obama for distracting people from the economy by talking about the NSA, then blasted him for distracting people from the NSA by talking about the economy.

I wonder what they'd say if someone tried to pass a bill that says the same thing, but for refusing service to Christians because serving them would violate another group's religion.  That's freedom of religion too.

So when are Republicans going to pass bills that actually attempt to fix the economy for most of the nation?  Or did I just answer my own question?

[Cloud3514]

Here's the fun thing about Kansas: Kathleen Sebelius is our Clinton. However, when she left to join Obama"a cabinet, we got Brownback. Sebelius balanced our budget and made steps to fix our issues with sexism and racism (though she stayed quiet on homosexuality for political reasons),  but the moment the Republicans took the state back, they undid just about everything Sebelius did because they thought they could do it better. The result is that Kansas now has a struggling economy and let's shit like this through. I have just about zero hope that the republicans care enough about anything other than their agenda to deal with things that actually matter.