Comments on: Utah Religious Freedom Bill To Rescind LGBT Anti-Discrimination Measures — And Protect Polygamy

By: cowboy

cowboy — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 16:06:30 +0000

UPDATE: The three anti-gay bills have been pulled. The sponsor (Mr. Lavar Christensen) has decided to have a dialog about these bills first.

(whew)

But, I wonder what dialog was happening in the back rooms that prompted his withdrawal of these bills. Was there a call from LDS Headquarters?

By: BlackDog

BlackDog — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 15:27:51 +0000

(Note: this is not a joke)

I suspect if more American Christians knew how it felt to be discriminated against, they wouldn’t try to discriminate against other people quite so often.

Note that I’m talking about legitimate discrimination or persecution, not claims of persecution because someone didn’t want to be preached at or they couldn’t force their religion on others.

The things that most American Christians claim to be persecution (in this country) do a disservice to the Christians in places like China or North Korea or Sudan, who actually ARE persecuted for their religion. I often get the vibe that the type of Fundamentalists who claim there’s persecution in the US would surrender in a heartbeat if faced with real persecution.

By: Mark F.

Mark F. — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 23:04:14 +0000

I support this measure if people will also have an absolute right to discriminate against Christians. Fair is fair.

(Note: this is not a joke.)

By: BlackDog

BlackDog — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 17:48:02 +0000

Aren’t they worried that a Christian bigot might use something like this to discriminate against a mormon, or a mormon bigot might discriminate against Christians?

Seems to me that something like this could be used by enterprising bigots or religious fanatics to cause all sorts of trouble.

Why do people always assume it’s only THEIR group that can or will use something like this as a weapon?

Broadly written laws guaranteeing absolute freedom of religion and overturning anti-discrimination laws at the same time just sound like a hell of a bad idea for everybody. Crap like this is why we have the bill of rights in the first place.

By: palerobber

palerobber — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 03:04:13 +0000

…er, i mean Stefano.

By: palerobber

palerobber — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 03:03:11 +0000

thanks to Stephano and Masked for posting the info on LaVar Christensen’s other bills (so i didn’t have to).

the pro employment & housing discrimination bill was pretty predictable — it was the HB182/270 combo that really surprised me.

a common, if false, argument made by the anti marriage folks is that gay couples already have the equal opportunity through contracts to give their partnerships legal weight. these two bills would explicitly withdraw even that crumb of a benefit. how much more mean spirited can you get?

but as if that weren’t enough, HB270 by itself gives the green light to every last bigot working in government in utah at any level to discriminate against gays in their delivery of services or allocation of resources. wow.

if mormons believed in hell, LaVar would certainly have a special place in it.

By: The Lauderdale

The Lauderdale — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 18:30:56 +0000

For what it’s worth, I didn’t realize that Rob was being sarcastic either. When so many people make such stupid statements in full earnestness, it’s an easy mistake to make.

By: Priya Lynn

Priya Lynn — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 15:28:53 +0000

Rob give Tique a break. Sarcasm often doesn’t convey very well in writing. As you said, Tique may be new to this site and less able to see that your comment was sarcastic. That’s not her/his fault and you shouldn’t blame him/her for thinking you were serious, it was an honest mistake.

By: Amicus

Amicus — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 15:08:36 +0000

(If I remember right, the Utah Human Rights Commission is among the weakest in terms of what they can do legally when they discover discrimination, of any kind.

It’s like the U.N. in Utah. The most they can do is write a strongly worded letter.)

By: Rob in San Diego

Rob in San Diego — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 04:54:28 +0000

@Tique, I’m not sure I’m an idiot considering that you couldn’t use proper grammer (and spell check) in “your” (not you) sentence. You must be new to this site and having to deal with the religious right and republican right. Welcome to being gay and having to deal with the real idiots on the right.

My hat goes off to both Blackdog and Masked Bandit who see my posting as something being humorous ;) Since you must be new to this site and being gay (are you gay, I don’t know and I don’t want to accuse) we have heard it all when it comes to marriage equality and the slippery slope that it leads to.

For example, if I were to marry my partner and be a family with him and his son it will lead to a slippery slope of…

Straight people getting divorced.
Straight people marrying their relatives.
Straight people marrying their dogs.
Straight people marrying dead people and having sex with them.
Straight people having multiple partners.
Straight people marrying their kids.
Straight people marrying their horses.

etc, etc, and the list goes on….

So you see Tique, I don’t know what I did to offend you and warrant name calling, unless your some mole from the religious right sent here to sabotage us. Are you?