DON'T FORGET TO "LIKE" BEE-OTCH OF THE DAY ON FACEBOOK!
Name: the Arizona GOP
Age: various
Occupation: right-wingers
Last Seen: Phoenix, AZ
Bee-otched For: trying to screw over the LGBTQ community
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Just what Arizona needs: another discriminating law.
A few years ago, governor Jan Brewer passed a law that allows police to ask people that look and act like illegal immigrants to hand over their papers. Even the Supreme Court - also leaning to the right - claimed it was constitutional.
Now, many in the state are trying to persuade the Republican governor to veto a bill that would allow businesses to kick out people who are gay. The law would protect Christian business owners and others from being forced to serve those in the LGBTQ community, such as bakeries that don't want to make cakes for gay weddings or a gay couple wanting to eat in a restaurant. Many in the GOP - including Arizona senators John McCain and Jeff Flake, plus former presidential nominee Mitt Romney - have all asked Brewer to veto the bill, claiming that it would have a negative impact on the state's economy, still recovering after the 2008 economic collapse.
One major factor as to why they don't want the bill to pass is because next year's Super Bowl is in Phoenix and a gay ban in the state could force the NFL to rethink another town to host it. Like we need hotels to ban guys who stay together in one room.
All this reminds me of an old folk story I heard as a little boy called "Stone Soup". Two young strangers go into a small town in need of a place to stay. But, the town innkeeper saw them coming and hid all the keys. The two come in and the innkeeper lied to them, stating that there were no vacancies. So, when the village heard about the strangers, they took action. The strangers carried a large pot with them, dipped it into a lake, put a huge stone in it and tried to boil it. Passersby saw what the men where doing, and they decided to contribute. One person added in onions, another added hamburger, another added carrots, one added in mushrooms and so on. In the end, the whole town showed up to help the strangers with their meal. Then, the innkeeper came to the party and apologized to the men for being so rude. There, he gave the two his best room, free of charge.
You see, I learned this story in of all places, Sunday School. As youngsters, we're taught to love thy neighbor, which means not to judge them by anything, especially race, creed, sex and especially their sexual orientation. I consider myself a Christian, but I don't judge people by who they sleep with. If homosexuality is a sin, that's for God to judge. To call yourself a Christian but to refuse service to a gay person because you think that it infringes on your beliefs, well, remember, the same shit happened back before the Civil Rights era between whites and blacks. Today, if you kick a man out of your store just because he's black, then that's discrimination. The same should go to a man who wears a pink fedora, a Tintin haircut and speaks with a lisp or a woman with short hair, t-shirt and blue jeans.
Maybe we all need to start with a pot and a stone and see what happens.
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